Remembered

[FanchesterCity]

Red or blue, Liverpool or Manchester, man or woman... the similarities by far outweigh the differences,

 

25 years ago a group of people set out to watch a football match. Many followed Forest, many followed Liverpool. They were drawn by the heady mix of passion for their teams, the excitement of an FA Cup semi final, the atmosphere of such an important match, and a trip to a neutral venue.

 

95 of them never returned,  and one of them was to endure only for a little while longer.

 

96 Liverpool fans lost their lives as a direct result of events that day. Many more had their lives irrevocably changed.

 

They might have been City fans, or United fans, they might have been Everton or Fulham. It could have been your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your son or your daughter. For most of us, it wasn't. It was 96 strangers by name. But they weren't strangers by nature.

 

Old and young, they were never to return, but their tragic deaths resulted in safer practices and a little bit more respect for our fellow football fans. Sometimes, safety and respect are still found wanting, but the improvement remains.

 

The issues that surround events of that day are widely documented and still under consideration to this day, but I'd like to put those issues to one side for the moment, and just remember how far we've come, in no small part to those unwitting few.

 

I can't defend what some football fans of that era were like, no more than I can defend how some are today, but I can defend 96 matchgoers who deserve to be defended. And I can remember the 96 matchgoers who deserve to be remembered.

 

If you do nothing else as a fan, I'd ask this only.... 

 

Somewhere, sometime, there might be another 96 who set off with the same innocent intentions, and suffer a similar fate. Maybe they'll wear a different colour shirt, or speak a different language, but they could be out there tomorrow, or next season, or in 10 years time... so...

 

Wouldn't it be decent if we could maybe hold back a little when we want to insult other fans? Maybe shake the hand of a rival and say "we'll beat you next time!".

 

The authorities might not always care as much for fans as they ought, but we should at least be able to give a toss about each other.

 

Those thousands weren't animals deserving of being treated as such, they were just people like you and me. And we're no less people 25 years on. The way we treat each other should be a nod to the 96 and the price they paid in improving conditions. Is it too much to ask that we remember them in the way be now behave?

 

YNWA96

[kopboy11]

Well said mate.Touch of class.

[Ronnie Whelan]

Well said mate.

[xerxes]

I checked the PL table. Eight of the  twenty PL clubs are in new stadia,six have been almost entirely rebuilt in situ. A fiiting permanent legacy.

 

CCTV , numbered seats and stewarding have transformed grounds, opposition fans now sit divided by a few rows of seats and bored orangecoats rather than steel pens and razor wire.

 

Much has been done, none would have happened without the tragic loss of 96 lives.

[dandyman]

Just watching the memorial service on lfc TV, Brendan Rodgers is just a class act. Some very special words spoken. He really had got this club at every level.

[Dunney Boy]

Top top class Fanchester City. Well said that man.