Hillsborough Disaster

On the 15th of April 1989, 96 Liverpool fans were innocently killed whilst attending an FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. Today, some eleven years on the families are still fighting for complete justice. The 96 fans killed are remembered at Anfield by the Eternal Flame memorial next to the Shankly Gates. A memorial was placed a short distance away from Hillsborough more than ten years after the event to acknowledge that the event happened. The eternal flame graphic can be seen below.

The two Police officers were finally brought to court in a private prosecution in Summer 2000. Bernard Murray was cleared of any wrongdoing after a trial in front of a jury was heavily guided. Following the trial the jury had been sent away with four points to consider. Each point had a yes or no answer and only when the first question was answered yes could they consider the next.

David Duckenfield, the overall officer in charge on the day had no verdict against him after deliberations even after the judge stated that he would accept a majority verdict. This is a clear indication that the jury feel the officer was far from innocent. The judge then sent the famil support group away to consider whether they wanted a re-trial against Duckenfield. Howevere after the families decided that they wanted a re-trial Judge Hooper decided he wouldn't allow one. He claimed that the officer had gone through enough trauma.

Once again Justice is not allowed to happen through covering up. It seems that the trauma each and every family went through in 1989 is of no concern to the Judge in his decision. The support group have vowed to continue in their fight for justice. The Hillsborough Justice Campaign have also vowed to continue their fight for justice.

The truth has never been faced by the authorities after the event despite the Taylor report going some way into shedding light in who was to blame for the disaster. Reports from Police arising straight after the game suggested fans had stormed a gate open to enter the ground without tickets. This statement was later amended but the national press seized upon this statement and went to great lengths to protect the real truth from coming out. The police even thought that the cries from help on the terrace were the starts of a pitch invasion. This allegation was completely false and prevented fans from getting away from the terrace and potentially saving their own lives.

The inquests to the deaths were a complete shambles. They saw a verdict of accidental death retuned after the coroner allowed this verdict to include some scope of negligence to be included. A 3.15PM cut off time was placed on all the deaths despite medical evidence pointing to the facts that many fans were still alive well after this time. The inquests had seen much evidence ignored or tampered with. It was alleged that the video cameras which gave a clear view of the terrace were faulty on the day. However this has been proved wrong and the videos were conveniently lost and the person installing the cameras was never asked to give evidence.

The verdicts were passed in March 1991. The Police force placed in charge of all concerns of Hillsborough was West Midlands. In July 1991 the Police complaints Authority started to investiagte disciplinary procedures against two officers in charge of the day. Four months later one of the two men Chief Superintendent Duckenfield was allowed to retire on health grounds meaning he did not have to face charges. Three months later the authorities decided to scrap moves against the second officer as it would have been in appropriate.

In 1993 the request for the inquest verdicts to be overturned was turned down. A year later Jimmy McGovern's Cracker featured a serial killer traumatised by the disaster. Three months later he bowed to pressure to write a piece on Jillsborough for public viewing. This was shown to great acclaim in December 1996. The home secretary Michael Howard agreed to investigate the disaster again. The new home secretary, Jack Straw, in June 97 order Judge Stuart-Smith to scrutinise the evidence. His appointment proved a bad one in that his comments about the disaster were aired showing a prejudice against the fans before his final outcome had been arrived at. It was only 9 years after the event that families were eventually able to access files on the disaster which contained many inconsistencies. The report from the Lord Justice was accepted by Jack Straw and no new inquiry was instigated.

Statements which have since been viewed in the original and revised format revealed how many stories were heavily amended in providing the huge cover-up which has occurred. In June 1998 the Hillsborough Family Support Group decided to push forward with Private prosecutions against both Duckenfield and Murray. These prosecutions are still ongoing and in May 99 the South Yorkshire Police were ordered to hand over important documents to the families in their fight. Committal proceedings were set for the 5th July 99.

BILL SHANKLY

Bill Shankly

Born September 2 1913 - Glenbuck, Scotland.

Bill Shankly is the man rightly attributed with taking Liverpool Football Club from just another league team to the point where we were feared. When he left the club in 1974 he left it at a point where Bob Paisley managed to conquer Europe. Quite frankly without Bill Shankly I doubt very much that Liverpool would be were they are today. Shankly was a man of the people who never forgot his roots and because of his upbringing felt a pull and special affection for the people of Liverpool. This was certainly returned to the great man and he will never be forgotten.

Shankly played the majority of his playing career at Preston Noth End. He played at Preston between 1933 and 1949 with the war depriving him of countless more appearances at both club and international level. Shankly in fact played as a guest for Liverpool, amongst others during the war. His move to management started at Carlisle in April 1949 where he stayed for just over two seasons. He joined Grimsby for the 1951-52 season and stayed two and a half seasons before resigning and having a similar length spell at Workington. He left Workington for Huddersfield in 1955 and became their manager in 1956. He stayed there until December 1959 when he resigned to join Liverpool. And then the revolution started.

It was a major job for Bill to take the club from where it was to somewhere near the top. Liverpool were languishing in the second division at the time and there they remained until he guided the team to the championship in 1961-62. His first season in the top division saw the reds finish 8th but the following season he took the reds to the top of the division, a place they would become accustomed over the next three decades.

Shankly also took the club to many an exciting night in Europe, although he was often reluctant to trust the European game. In 1964-65, Liverpool first ever venture to Europe, Shankly hit upon of using his psychological methods on the opposition. Liverpool faced Anderlecht in the second round and Shanks decided that Ron Yeats would look even bigger if he wore red shorts to match the red top. Ian St.John also picked up on this though saying that red socks would make him bigger and frighten the opposition. The all-red Liverpool kit was born. The ploy worked and Liverpool marched on. They were to meet Inter Milan the same year in the semi-final of the trophy and this was when Shankly first became really wary of Europe. In the home leg Shanks used his psychological powers again by parading the FA Cup prior to the game then sent Inter out first for the kop to scare them, then came out the Reds. Liverpool won the game 3-1 to take a two-goal lead to Italy. Inter won the return leg 3-0 following some dubious decisions in the San Siro. The first goal was an indirect free kick that was kicked directly in and the second saw an italian kick the ball out of Lawrence’s hands. Over time though Shanks used the defeat to his advantage by convincing the players of how they had improved.

Shankly eventually won in Europe in 1973 when he lifted the UEFA cup. However it was the end of the following season when he shook football by resigning. He had however built Liverpool up by this time and Bob Paisley would step in to build us higher. None of this could have happened though without the great man.

Shankly was awarded an OBE but should have received more recognition for his services to the game. The great mans comments on receiving the OBE said ‘it was for the people of Liverpool and Liverpool FC’.

The Honours - 1 Div 2 championship, 3 championships, 2 FA Cup wins, 1 UEFA cup win and 1 manager of the year.

BILL SHANKLY - THE LEGEND, THE GENIUS, THE MAN

You'll Never Walk Alone

In England, the song's most successful performance was recorded in 1963 by the Liverpudlian Merseybeat group Gerry & The Pacemaker. It quickly became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club and is invariably sung by its supporters moments before the start of each home game. The words "You'll Never Walk Alone" also feature in the club crest and on the Shankly Gate entrance to the stadium.

According to former player Tommy Smith, Gerry Marsden presented Liverpool manager Bill Shankly with a recording of his upcoming cover single during a pre-season coach trip in the summer of 1963. "Shanks was in awe of what he [had] heard. [...] Football writers from the local newspapers were travelling with our party and, thirsty for a story of any kind between games, filed copy back to their editors to the effect that we had adopted Gerry Marsden's forthcoming single as the club song".

Marsden himself told BBC Radio how, in the 1960s, the deejay at Anfield would play the top-ten commercial records in ascending order, with the number one single transmitted last, shortly before kickoff. Supporters standing on the Spion Kop terrace would sing along, but once "You'll Never Walk Alone" dropped out of the top-ten, says Marsden, they continued to sing it. The song was later adopted by the Scottish teams Hibernian and Celtic,Dutch teams Feyenoord and FC Twente, the Belgium team Club Brugge,and Japan's F.C. Tokyo.

The Pink Floyd song "Fearless", from their 1971 Meddle album, includes a recording of the Liverpool Kop singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". The recording is repeated many times during the song and appears solely as a conclusion at the end of the track.

A special recording of the song was made in solidarity with Bradford City following the Valley Parade fire in 1985, when 56 spectators died and many more were seriously injured. The song was performed by The Crowd, featuring Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and Rolf Harris, among others.

Some years later, after witnessing a rousing rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Anfield in 2007, the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco, said he felt inspired to seek lyrics to his country's wordless national anthem, the Royal March, ahead of Madrid's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

THE ANFIELD STADIUM

Liverpool has played at Anfield since they were founded in 1892. Anfield was built in 1884 on land adjacent to Stanley Park, and was originally used by Everton. They left the ground in 1892 over a dispute about rent with the owner of Anfield, John Houlding, who decided to form a new club to play at the ground. The capacity of the stadium was 20,000, although only 100 spectators attended Liverpool's first match at Anfield.

In 1906, the banked stand at one end of the ground was formally renamed the Spion Kop after a hill in Natal. The hill was the site of the Battle of Spion Kop in the Second Boer War, where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many of whom were from Liverpool. At its largest, the stand could hold 28,000 spectators, and was one of the largest single tier stands in the world. Many stadia in England had stands named after the Spion Kop, but Anfield's was the largest Kop in the country at the time; it was able to hold more supporters than some entire football grounds.The stand was considerably reduced in capacity due to safety measures brought in following the Hillsborough Disaster. It was completely rebuilt as an all-seater stand in 1994, and remains a single tier stand with a reduced capacity of 12,390.

The Anfield Road stand is positioned at the opposite end to the Kop, and houses the away team's fans. Rebuilt in 1998 with a capacity of 9,074, it is the newest stand at Anfield. The two stands adjacent to these are the Main Stand, with a capacity of 12,227, and the Centenary Stand, which has a capacity of 11,762. The Main Stand is the oldest part of Anfield, and has remained largely untouched since its redevelopment in 1973. It houses the players' changing rooms and the director's box, and the dug-outs are in front of the stand. The Centenary Stand was previously known as the Kemlyn Road Stand until it was rebuilt for the club's centenary in 1992. The redevelopment saw the houses in Kemlyn Road demolished and the address become non-existent. The capacity of the stadium is 45,362. It is rated as a four-star stadium in the UEFA Stadia List.

On 30 July 2004, the Liverpool City Council granted the club planning permission to build a new 60,000-seat stadium just 300 yards (270 m) away from Anfield at Stanley Park,and on 8 September 2006 the Council agreed to grant Liverpool F.C. a 999-year lease on the land on the proposed site.Following the takeover of the club in February 2007 by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the proposed stadium was redesigned. In November 2007, the new design was approved by the Council, and construction started in June 2008.HKS, Inc. are building the new stadium which is expected to be completed in 2011.

LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB

Liverpool Football Club (pronounced /ˈlɪvərˌpul/) is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club plays in the Premier League, and has won more trophies than any other English club. Liverpool has won a joint-record eighteen league titles,^[1] seven FA Cups, seven League Cups, and the European Cup five times, a record for an English club.

The club was founded in 1892 when a dispute between Everton F.C. and the landlord of their Anfield stadium saw Everton relocate to Goodison Park and the old stadium become vacant. They joined the Football League soon afterwards and within a few years were a strong force in English football, winning five league championships between 1900 and 1947. However, Liverpool slipped into the Football League Second Division in the 1950s, and did not win promotion again until 1962, three years after the appointment of Bill Shankly as manager. They were First Division champions for the sixth time in 1964 - just two years after promotion.

The club traditionally played in red and white, but this was changed to all red in the 1960s.

Under Shankly's management, Liverpool won three League Championship titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup; the club's first European trophy. He retired in 1974 at the end of the season that brought them an FA Cup triumph, to be succeeded by coach Bob Paisley, who set a new record of winning 13 major tropies between then and his retirement in 1983 - including three European Cups.

In the past 30 years, they have been one of the most successful clubs in English and European football; they won four European Cups between 1977 and 1984.

The Heysel Stadium disaster made the club infamous in Europe; 39 Juventus fans died after a wall collapsed as they fled from charging Liverpool fans. The club was involved in another disaster four years later—the Hillsborough Disaster— which saw the death of 96 Liverpool fans in a crush against perimeter fencing. Flames were added to the club's crest in honour of the Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough. Both disasters have had wide-ranging impacts on English and European football, and the club, to this day.

Liverpool remained highly successful to the end of the 1980s. Despite being banned from European competitions for six years after the tragedy at Heysel, Liverpool dominated the domestic scene under player-manager Kenny Dalglish who succeeded Joe Fagan in 1985. They joined the elite of clubs to have won the double of the league title and FA Cup in 1986, gained two further league titles in 1988 and again in 1990, and also won their fourth FA Cup in 1989.

The 1990s was a relatively unsuccessful decade by Liverpool standards. The 1990 league title was their most recent top division title to date, although they did win the FA Cup in 1992 and a record fifth League Cup in 1995, they never finished higher than third place after 1991 and in 1994 finished as low as eighth.

However, the 2000s has seen an upturn in fortunes for the club. They won three trophies in 2001 (the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup), finished second in the league in 2002 after 11 years outside the top two and won their seventh League Cup in 2003 under the management of Frenchman Gerard Houllier, who had been appointed in 1998. Houllier was succeeded by Rafael Benitez in 2004, and in his first season they won their fifth European Cup. Since then they have also won their seventh FA Cup as well as achieving another second place finish in the league. In spite of these success, they have still yet to win the league title since 1990.

Liverpool F.C. has played at Anfield since its formation, but plans to move to a new stadium in Stanley Park, which was due to be completed by 2011 but has been put on hold until economic conditions improve. Liverpool has a large and diverse fan base, which holds long-standing rivalries with several clubs. The most notable of these are their rivalries with Manchester United and Everton, with whom they contest the Merseyside derby.