Liverpool fans tend to lump together the disasters of Hillsborough and Heysel. Whilst I’ve never sung a Hillsborough song in my life, I see Heysel as fair game. The actions of Liverpool fans lead to the deaths of 39 people, yet after the tragedy, their club washed their hands of the disaster.
They blamed Chelsea fans and didn’t appologise for what happened until 20 years later. The chairman, John Smith, publicly distanced the club from what happened, again, talking of the southern accents heard in the crowd and the apparent number of Chelsea fans there.
Had they accepted the blame, the chants of “murderers” would never have arisen. But their repeated denial and eagerness to blame others lead to outrage amongst other football fans.
The irony of their denial is that throughout this time period they were urging the South Yorkshire Police to accept responsibility of Hillsborough. Justice for the 96, but let’s sweep the 39 under the carpet.
Last season during the Merseyside derby, Liverpool fans could be heard singing “2-0 to the murderers”, making light of the actions of their fans.
In this year’s Merseyside derby, their home fans were seen with “Steaua Bucuresti 1986″ banners, again, mocking what happened at Heysel.
The deaths caused by Liverpool fans meant all English clubs were banned from Europe, and Everton, who were flying high at the time, were denied the opportunity to compete, with eventual winners, Steaua Bucuresti.
It’s good to see those “lovable scousers”, who mourn their own fans, can take the deaths of the Juventus fans they caused so lightly.
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Table showing all the English clubs effected by the ban imposed because of Liverpool fans
Without killing anyone, we’ve won it three times
Empire of the Kop must be having fits
Fred – Superb pal. I can clearly remember that night at Anfield with the mosaic and Platini and Rush. Juve fans were furious. I also saw the banner at Fiorentina but did not realise that had happened. As you said you could not make it up.
J.F.H…….Justice For Hysel………………..
King Eric Said,
February 9th, 2010 @18:59
Trev – Oh please mate. I was at Oakwell and a few fucking pies being slung around hardly amounts to Heysel .
PMSL! That’s exactly what I thought when I read Trev’s comments.
RE; Ashish – All I can say is you really haven’t got a clue, time to fuck off
This article is pretty unpalatable. It’s petty mud-slinging masquerading as gravitas.
Fred, you’re right the 2005 friendship ‘gesture’ was genuinely stomach-turning material. Outside of football, I wonder how many friends and relatives of murder victims want to be all matey with the offender? H’mmm. Maybe not the best metaphor, but you get my point I hope.
Back to the original article. Whether it’s intended as ‘humour’ or otherwise, any banners or chants that reference a tragedy in an attempt to get under the skin of the opposing fans is in exceptionally bad taste and cannot, cannot be justified or excused.
It’s a fair comment to point out that it is down to a minority – it usually is. But when it happens, the majority should be quick to intervene and stop it, then come out afterwards and condemn it. Otherwise they are I’m afraid, effectively condoning it.
“Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting, my friends.”
Maybe it’s time we heeded the words of those most famous of Liverpudlians, Lennon & McCartney.
And as John once said: give peace a chance.
Goodnight, God bless.
I am a man utd fan from nigeria living in nigeria. Anyone who thinks fans outside england are not true fans should think again. 5 nigerians died on that night: 4 barca fans and the man utd fan whose life is effectively over. We love our football and we love our teams. I was heartbroken when i heard the news and i apologise to all barca fans. We should not mock the liverpool fans. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
scott I enjoy your blog but I find this post ever so hypocritical:
“I’ve never sang a Hillsborough song in my life but Heysel, I see as fair game”
- Fair game? The deaths of nearly 40 football fans fair game? I think you need to reconsider how you word certain things.
In addition, as someone pointed out here, the “without killing anyone” t-shirts etc – these are just crass and stopp to EXACTLY the same level as those who do the chanting. I think this post was severley misjudged Scott.
Ok so Ashish is getting some stick for his comments. Liverpool fans putting up that banner is just inexcusable. But how hard is it to understand that every club probably has a few nuts who go about singing disgusting songs? Why mock the dead? Why does it have to reflect on the entire support?
Even if the Liverpool fans were being hypocritical, why the fuck should we care?
I would rather compete with them on the field rather than on such issues. Why try to score brownie points over such a tragic incident?
The pictures from Hillsborough, the pictures from Heysel, the pictures from Munich should make you sad regardless of the club you support. And even if some supporters from the concerned clubs sing pathetic songs we should keep the 96+39+23 in our minds.
NC – Singing about Heysel isn’t mocking the dead like singing about Hillsborough and Munich is.
Read the links at the bottom of the page and then comment. It gets boring having to explain the same things to people over and over again.
This is the difference between us and them. We are the RED DEVILS,they are THE REDS ANIMALS !!!
You people say that Liverpool fans have no remorse for what happened at Heysel.
Empire Of The Kop is willing to condemn those fans who were mocking Everton with what happened at Heysel by displaying that Bucuresti banner.
This contradicts your claim that Liverpool fans don’t feel sorry for those 39 Italians.Because I’ve found one owner of a prominent Liverpool blog show his contempt at those who displayed that banner !