Without meaning any dispespect at all to some Liverpool fans, you would think sometimes that they are the only club in the whole world whose fans have ever suffered a major tragedy. Sure, Hillsborough was absolutely awful and should have never ever happened. I was nine at the time and I still recall vividly how I felt when I heard the news. But sadly, those 96 people can't be brought back, and nothing will ever change that.

My own team was another British club whose fans once suffered an awful tragedy at a ground; 2nd January 1971 to be exact when 66 Rangers fans died at Ibrox after getting caught up in a crush at the end of the New Year game against Celtic. Last year was the 40th anniversary of that awful day, and I'm sure that while the tragedy was a very sensitive subject for duscussion for Rangers fans for many years after, they have had to learn to deal with it and move on. Sure, the causes of the two tragedies were totally different, but lives lost are lives lost and sadly can't be brought back.

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Werner's comments are a little more to the point this afternoon than the earlier statement regarding Camolli.

We've had a strategy that we have agreed on. There was some disconnect on the implementation of that. That strategy is a strong one and it will continue.

"We need to build a strong system under the first team. We're hard at work identifying transfer targets and we will be better next year."

Has space been made for KK to go back upstairs, politically apeasing the fans whilst bringing a new manager I wonder? As for money to be spent over the summer, it does sound like there is more to come.

As far as the Hillsborough comments, I understand from an 'Out of Towners' perspective why rival fans would question it, but I think Liverpool's wishes shouldn't be questioned. As a now armchair supporte,r I do not fully understand the effects that this horrid moment in our history had on the area of Liverpool and never fully will, having not been directly affected. However I would never question it, and if for instance Rangers or United were to not play on the anniversaries of their respective disasters it would not be my place to question that, simple as. Alan Davies getting involved was just daft, I bet his gig in Liverpool this year will be interesting. It smacks of someone having gone off the radar wanting some press coverage to me.

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Well said.

I'm not a 'grief monkey'. I didn't go to Anfield to leave my childhood Liverpool scarf (although I had a couple mates who didn't own a Liverpool scarf, so bought one just to take - W.T.F...). Still remember the day like it was yesterday. Still remember being shocked hearing that an old schoolmate was one of those who passed out and was manhandled over the fences onto the pitch where he was brought back round.

Still remember where I was when Diana (Princess of Hearts and whales) died; when September 11th happened.

Thought the collective wailing & gnashing of teeth by people with no connection to either aforementioned ex-wife of Charlie Windsor, nor to any of the 3,000 who died in the WTC, was annoying.

But Hillsborough was a bit different for most Liverpool people, simply because they DO have a connection. The vast majority know someone who was there, who was caught up in it, maybe who died.

It's also important to say that they don't expect everyone in Britain to weep each 15th April. All they ask is that they're allowed to remember in their own way - which includes not having a Liverpool football match scheduled on that day. Not too much to ask is it? So when other people, with no obvious legitimate motivation, call into question or make a cheap shot over the way Liverpool people handle the anniversary, surely those same Liverpool people have every right to respond. What that blog and certain people on here seem to be saying is that if someone wants to have a pop at Scousers over Hillsborough, then Scousers shouldn't be allowed to have a pop back.

 

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Saint, I know you. You'd be all over it if it wasn't the club you 'support'

I'm sick to death of having it rammed down my throat. That doesn't mean to say i don't know how tragic it was. I was watching it and it was awful, but why this? Why does Liverpool always think its such a special case all the bloody time? As others have said, how about we stop flying planes every 9/11, or stop the tubes every 7/5? Honestly some - and I said some - Liverpool fans are so far up their own arses. They aren't happy unless they are miserable and demanding the pity of everyone else. Snoozzzzzzze.

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While I do understand to an extent why Liverpool don't want to play a match on April 15th, especially an FA Cup semi-final as it was such a game that the tragedy occurred at, I do wonder why other clubs elsewhere whose fans have been hit by disasters haven't taken a similar stance. For instance, Rangers AFAIK have never made any request for a game scheduled for 2nd January in any given year not to go ahead. They have played many games against Celtic on that date in all the years since 1971, most recently last season when they played Celtic at Ibrox exactly 40 years to the day since the disaster. Likewise, I wonder if Bradford City players, fans etc have ever not wanted to play on May 11th, the date of the fire at Valley Parade in 1985, or if Juventus have ever not wanted to play on May 29th, the anniversary of Heysel- a disaster that I, then a five year old kid, saw unfold on live TV, just as so many others did that night.

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Yes but death threats just for expressing an opinion, I am surprised that the police arn't looking into this over reaction by some charming "scousers".

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I don't know...maybe.

 

 

That isn't the way I see it, though. Like I said, Liverpool people just seem to me to want to commemorate their tragedy themselves - no ramming down the throats of others. In fact the only time you tend to hear of it outside of Liverpool is when either a hack piece runs a feature or if some public figure pokes a stick in the wasps nest.

 

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Maybe so, but I'm pretty sure that many people living in Glasgow back in 1971 would have said something similar after the Ibrox disaster, and I also imagine that the same would have been true of people from Bradford 14 years later. OK, the number of fatalities in each of those disasters was nowhere as huge was the number that died at Hillsborough, but the given the number who perished at Ibrox and at Bradford, 66 and 56 respectively, I would think it likely that there were also a lot of people in Glasgow and Bradford at the times of those disasters who knew someone that was at the ground at the time and who also perhaps knew someone that sadly lost their life.

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I find it hard to believe that the vast majority of people in liverpool do know someone who was there. 

The population of the greater Liverpool area is approx 800,000, the metropolitan area was probaly 400,000.

As a cup semi final there would have been 'pool fans there from all over england at least, if not abroad, I understand that there were about 14000 tickets for liverpool fans. I just wonder how many attending fans actually lived in Liverpool.

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