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My heart breaks at this.


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While scanning through the reports of our achievement on Tuesday night yesterday I came across one of the most vilest pieces of reporting I had in a long time. It was a re harsh of the blame Liverpool fans for everything mentality linked to the attack on Sean Cox an inocent fans who had turned up to watch his team play. It was vile shit and it encouraged loads of vile anti Liverpool comments. I do not know if I got banned but I labelled a number of the posters scum because that is what they were for the comments they made.

 

It really breaks my heart to read that shit and alleged incidents of people getting pissed on from above in the lower ARE do not help.

 

Apparently the offending article has been taken down according to the Echo. I do not know whether this Mafham is a journalist or just some bastard given a platform to spout his anti Liverpool shit. He comes across as either a Manchester United or Chelsea card carrying supporter.

 

Not surprisingly the Echo are not allowing comments. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/incorrect-ignorant-offensive-newspaper-response-14579442

 

After the inspiring, enduring – and ultimately vindicated - heroism displayed by the Hillsborough families, after many years of an entire region's reputation being cruelly traduced – and after a decades-long fight for justice in the face of establishment indifference, I thought we had seen an end to small-minded prejudice towards Liverpool Football Club and its fans.

Think again.

A 53-year-old Liverpool supporter lies in hospital in a critical condition, the subject of an assault by two Roma supporters.

Yet in a vile, presumptuous and repugnant article published on today's Daily Express website the writer, Colin Mafham, appears to infer that Liverpool brought such trouble upon themselves.

We shouldn't be surprised.

We've heard those kind of historic prejudices before, but thought they went out of fashion with The Spectator's notorious 'self pity city.'

Sadly not.

 

Under the headline “Liverpool must take serious action after Roma violence or risk further trouble” Mafham, in a spectacular display of generalisation, wrote: “Why does trouble seem to follow them (Liverpool fans) like bees round a honey pot?”

After praising Liverpool's performance on the pitch on Tuesday he adds: “It's not the players who produced that performance who I have an issue with, it's some of the people who 'follow' them that frighten the living daylights out of me.

“You would have thought the deaths of 39 Italians at the European Cup final Liverpool lost to Juventus in 1985 - plus the five year ban on English clubs that consequently came after that - would have had a sobering effect.

“You would have thought the horrors at Hillsborough and 96 more deaths that followed only four years later would have made everyone more aware of their responsibilities to each other.

 

“Those two tragedies, in which the central figures were sadly mostly from Liverpool, are arguably football's most painful Achilles and hopefully will never happen again.”

Once again the two very different tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough are lumped shamelessly together.

Heysel was a criminal act for which 14 Liverpool fans were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and seven served jail sentences.

Hillsborough was wholly different – a tragedy in which it took 28 years for a jury to rule what really happened: that 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed in a disaster that Reds supporters were judged to have played no role in causing.

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A view of The Albert pub on Walton Breck Road, where the attack happened

Yet, in an astonishing leap of imagination, Mafham muses: “So why do I fear that the latest generation of that club's supporters could well add another chapter to England's footballing book of condolences?”

The 'evidence' for such fear appears to come from the attack on the Manchester City team bus three weeks ago, actions immediately denounced by Liverpool Football Club and which resulted in the immediate action of a change of bus route with increased policing.

The arrival of Roma's team bus on Tuesday was trouble-free.

 

Yet Mafham asks: “We know where the empty bottles came from, but where the heck did they get those fire flares that were thrown at the Manchester City and Roma team buses? You couldn't bring them through customs the last time I looked.”

If that was factually incorrect, what followed was just plain offensive.

JS149866882-1.jpg

Roma fans attack a Liverpool fan before the game last night.

He enquires: “And why is a 53-year-old man now seemingly fighting for his life, and two Italians being held on suspicion of attempted murder, before a football match involving Liverpool?

“When you have a team capable of playing the joyous football Liverpool have for most of this season, how on earth are their fans always seemingly involved in such horrific altercations on big European nights.”

If you search for the term 'fire flares' you learn that they can be bought freely in this country.

 
 

A 53-year-old man is fighting for his life because he was allegedly attacked by a 20 and 27 year old Italian.

 

And does two unrelated tragedies 33 and 29 years ago really amount to “always seemingly involved in such horrific altercations?”

For the record, nine men were arrested on Tuesday night, five from Italy – all for violence related offences or possession of offensive weapons – one man was from Ealing, one from Thurrock and two men were from Merseyside; one was arrested for being drunk and disorderly, the other for cocaine possession.

“No one is suggesting that the violence that erupted on Tuesday night was solely the fault of Liverpool fans,” Mafham eventually adds. “Their visitors from Rome were clearly just as thuggish, and just as frightening.

“But there are suggestions that the reputation of Liverpool supporters had gone before them and Roman yobs had simply decided to get in first, and with such awful consequences. It's not right, but it does again highlight a common denominator.”

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Liverpool fans outside The Arkles pub - but the Roma bus went elsewhere, untouched

It is a common denominator perpetuated by writers like Colin Mafham.

He concludes: “That's why I urge Liverpool Football Club to condemn, rather than giving succour to excuses like 'it's society's problem' and 'all the world's against us.'”

Here we go. Let's flashback to 1989 all over again and Self Pity City.

 

But Mafham saves his piece de resistance for his conclusion.

“The club needs to recognise it has a big problem - and has had for some years - and proactively support and work with those whose job it is to preserve law and order.

 
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Click to play

 

“If they don't then there is a very real danger that revenge will be sought by both sides when they meet in Rome for the second leg on May 2, and all hell could break loose again.

“And if that happens we will all be losers, on and off the field.”

During the time it's taken me to write this article, the Daily Express deleted one paragraph from Mafham's article, then taken the whole piece down.

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Here is a link to it...

 

I read it earlier and found if unbelievable such a piece is published on a national newspapers site.

 

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/951219/Liverpool-must-take-serious-action-Roma-violence-Colin-Mafham-Sunderland-news

 

Like all the links i found to the article they no longer work and just go to LFCs Excess page.

 

His express email is listed here http://journalisted.com/colin-mafham#tab-contact

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Like all the links i found to the article they no longer work and just go to LFCs Excess page.

 

His express email is listed here http://journalisted.com/colin-mafham#tab-contact

Yeah weird that becaue article is still viewable if you google "Daily express mafham" it is top result and can click and view it..

But try to post it it as you say does not display

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I don't find it offensive. I just think it's shite journalism and the link he's trying to make is paper thin. If that.

 

Firstly, facts. Is he an Evertonian? "39 Italians?" Nah. 39 "Italians" didn't die at Heysel. They were a mixture of nationalities.

 

Also, if we're being picky, 95 people died 4 years later at Hillsborough. Tony Bland didn't pass until 4 years later, in 1993.

 

Small points, but you'd at least expect a reputable journalist to get the basic facts right.

 

The Roma incident was nothing to do with the City incident. The attempts to link the two are laughable and involve a false supposition that Italian fans are traditionally well behaved and will only resort to violence for self preservation.

 

The reality is somewhat different. Italian football "ultras" still live back in the 80's, when English hooligans were seen as a big scalp. They, to this day, still have the same attitude. There was no previous bus smashing incident that acted as the motive for Napoli fans to stab Liverpool fans in 2010. Or when Roma fans attacked Middlesbrough fans. Or Manchester United fans. Or when Lazio fans attacked Spurs fans. Or when Roma fans and Feyernoord fans fought in the Europa league a few years back.

 

I do think that there is a fan base who have a reputation for causing trouble. With that point I agree. Sí.

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I submitted this complaint to the Express;

 

Sir. I write to protest in the strongest possible terms about the general inaccuracy, lack of right of reply, discrimination in addition to distorting facts to suit an agenda in the above article by Colin Mafham.

How on earth did this article get to be hosted on the on line edition of the Express's LFC Sports page?

Mafham perpetuates the continued ignorance by a small verciferous number of people that the dreadful attack of Sean Cox was a case of Liverpool fans getting their cumuppence and now using the 'victims' mentality.

Mafham's bias against Liverpool not to mention gross inaccuracies in his 'article' are obscene. Although this article was taken down on line, did it get into the printed edition? Why did the Sports Editor not review this article and more importantly why did he \ she allow it to be posted? This is a shocking oversight.

Liverpool Football Club and its fans, especially Mr Cox and his family deserve an apology from the Express, the Sports Editor and Mafham himself. I would also suggest the Express terminates any paid remuneration with Mafham.

The Express needs to publish an apology immediately and dismiss Mafham similarly.

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This is basically the same shit that Evertonians were posting on one of their fan sites yesterday.

I honestly can't think how Italians coming tooled up  and actively looking to beat people up, and nearly killing someone in the process, can be blamed on a few knobheads throwing cans at another English teams Bus.

The Italians have been doing this for ever and no-one ever does anything about them.

The perception that Liverpool fans are all violent thugs who travel the continent hell bent on trouble is a hard one to shake, however inaccurate it is.

The Express is a shite right-wing, Tory loving rag, worse than The S*n, because  The S*n at least, doesn't pretend to be anything other than a rag, and not some high brow, moral crusader of all things right and Just.

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This is why the boot must never, ever be taken off the throat of those who would deny Hillsborough. They hate - that is not too strong a word - the Hillsborough campaigners for their (incomplete as it has been) victory over the Fourth Estate who, with a few honourable exceptions, propagated the lies and enabled the cover-up, and they will take any opportunity to lash out. Fucking sociopaths.

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Never buy a paper. Never click on a site.

It is not news it is opinion. They can keep it and say what they like.

Not getting a penny of my money.

Their days are numbered.

The only things that are true in a newspaper are the date (even that is only true for a total of 24 hours) and the price. And even that isn't worth the paper it's written on.

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Never buy a paper. Never click on a site.

It is not news it is opinion. They can keep it and say what they like.

Not getting a penny of my money.

Their days are numbered.

 

Agree about not giving them money but I do not agree you should ignore it Anny. You have to fight your corner. This we do not care what others think of us just gives them a free platform to spout their bile. Their days are not numbered because people buy into their filth.

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I don't find it offensive. I just think it's shite journalism and the link he's trying to make is paper thin. If that.

 

Firstly, facts. Is he an Evertonian? "39 Italians?" Nah. 39 "Italians" didn't die at Heysel. They were a mixture of nationalities.

 

Also, if we're being picky, 95 people died 4 years later at Hillsborough. Tony Bland didn't pass until 4 years later, in 1993.

 

Small points, but you'd at least expect a reputable journalist to get the basic facts right.

 

The Roma incident was nothing to do with the City incident. The attempts to link the two are laughable and involve a false supposition that Italian fans are traditionally well behaved and will only resort to violence for self preservation.

 

The reality is somewhat different. Italian football "ultras" still live back in the 80's, when English hooligans were seen as a big scalp. They, to this day, still have the same attitude. There was no previous bus smashing incident that acted as the motive for Napoli fans to stab Liverpool fans in 2010. Or when Roma fans attacked Middlesbrough fans. Or Manchester United fans. Or when Lazio fans attacked Spurs fans. Or when Roma fans and Feyernoord fans fought in the Europa league a few years back.

 

I do think that there is a fan base who have a reputation for causing trouble. With that point I agree. Sí.

You didn't find it offensive? Seriously? I fucking did. It's implying that Liverpool fans are mainly to blame for that poor man lying in a coma in hospital for fucks sake. 

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I hope Mafham is as quick to jump all over and condemn the xenophobic, edl supporting, brexit voting mongs who follow Ingerlund in the summer when the Russians have webbed them all over the fucking place.

 

A nice liberal referencing of all of the agg the twats have caused at tournaments going back to Euro 80 and the behaviour that has 'shamed' the country time and time again as they have engaged in running battles across the globe - tore stadiums apart etc should be the absolute minimum and of course making sure everybody knows them getting filled in is of course all their own fault - payback and retaliation for racist chanting, chanting about war dead, booing national anthems, xenophobia, jingoism etc..

 

If he can find time away from being involved in the above mentioned behaviour of course.

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https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/951793/Liverpool-fans-and-Football-Club-Our-apology

 

 


Yesterday a comment piece by a freelance journalist entitled 'Liverpool must take serious action after Roma violence or risk further trouble' was published on this website.

 

This article was ill-informed and wrong. It did not, in any way, reflect the views of the Express. It should never have been written and was very quickly removed.

We unconditionally apologise, both for the article itself and any offence, understandably, caused.

The journalist who wrote the piece was immediately suspended.

Express.co.uk is conducting an inquiry into how the article came to be published on our website.

 

How do you suspend a freelance writer?

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