Angry Fans
He casts his eye over your comments and gives his own critical analysis of the
goings on throughout the world of football. You may agrewith him or then again
you may not. This weeks contributions from fans cover: The tragedy of Hillsborough
20 years on and the need for the truth to come through; Arsene Wenger, Drogba
and what £100,000 would have bought you a few years ago; Ticket allocations;
Wembley and Bon Jovi Champions League predictions; Manchester United, the media
hype and Fergies recent lack of organisation, motivation and leadership
The Letter of the Week goes to Derek Turner, Manchester United fan from Clonmel,
. Get in touch with your postal address and our magnificent prize will be winging
its way to you.
IT WAS with great sadness that I read Brendan's letter
in Angry Fan's (Irish Examiner, April 7). For the last 20 years, the families
of the victims of Hillsborough have had to overcome enormous barriers in their
pursuit of justice for the wrongdoings on that tragic day. This journey is made
more difficult by the mindset of a small minority that are determined to remain
ignorant of what really happened that afternoon. Call it what you like, but there
is a blatant inaccuracy at the heart of Brendan's letter of such magnitude that
I felt compelled to write in to rectify.
Brendan asks 'was it the police who
broke down the gates and forced their way into the ground? No it was the fans'.
WRONG
He would be well advised to read the Lord Justice Taylor's commissioned
report on what happened that day. Here is perhaps the biggest fact from that report:
The
chief cause of the disaster was the decision by the police to 'open the gates'
which resulted in a mass entry into an already full Leppings Lane End Gate. FACT.
A
recent report on ITV's 'Newsnight' on the Hillsborough tragedy showed some CCTV
footage of that day (even though 'someone' broke into the Hillsborough security
room the night of the tragedy and stole the vital stadium CCTV, thus removing
a chief source of evidence of what happened that day).
At no stage during the
footage do we see fans 'breaking' down the gates and stampeding into the terrace.
In fact, you can clearly see the gates being opened by a number of policemen and
groundsmen.
Brendan attempts to justify this attack on Liverpool fans by arguing
that one should not 'speak ill of a man who is not around to defend himself'.
Well Brendan, there are 96 voices who can't speak up and defend themselves against
the myths (that you continue to perpetuate) that have prevented the truth behind
the Hillsborough tragedy ever being uncovered.
Justice for the 96. For those
who never came home. YNWA
Amen.
