Hillsborough At 25: A Town United

((HT: SkySports))

It is the 25th anniversary of one of the most tragic events in the history of sport- the Hillsborough disaster. There was

a memorial service (pictured right, thanks Huffington Post UK) at Anfield to mark the day and there was a sight to see... Everton and Liverpool, blue and red, inside the Liverpool ground remembering as one...

And for someone who has only been blue for a year, Everton manager Roberto Martinez was a passioned man...


Here's the set-up ahead of time...
((HT: BBC))


And from Sky Sports...


To remind us all about how things should have never gotten out of control, here's the BBC's "Panorama" on the cover-up


Never forget... and that just goes to the rest of us who just watch and relate- those who are intimately involved deserve justice on an infinite scale...

OSG Prem: Liverpool Wins Emotional Day At Anfield, Inches Closer To Title

((HT: BPL on NBC/BBC Sport))

It was one of those days...

With all the emotion of the Hillsborough anniversary coming Tuesday, Anfield was all behind the Reds- starting pre-game


And you thought, that if the script writers had their say, it would be a day that Liverpool fans would remember for a lot of reasons- a win that would get them that much closer to a Premier League title for the first time in almost a quarter-century... all that stuff that brings emotion with it...

It did... with an unlikely source for the back-and-forth, 3-2 win


And the emotion afterwards was all over the captain's face...


For those of you not aware, the captain lost his 10-year-old cousin at Hillsborough. Daniel Taylor of the Observer newspaper penned a piece in 2012 about how Gerrard carries the crush of the disaster deep inside and still hadn't read the independent panel's report from that year:

"The basic details are enough: that it was a cover-up, an orchestrated smear campaign that goes to the top of the country and constitutes a scandal of the worst form. He knows now – and this is the first point at which he lowers his eyes and his voice trails off – that South Yorkshire police tested Jon-Paul and all the other corpses for alcohol levels. But the rest? He is frightened what else he might find out. "That's the reason why I don't want to read it. It's too difficult, for my family and all the families. It's all over the papers, all over the TV. It brings it all back."

Tuesday will bring back a lot of memories, but hopefully, some hope along with it since the new inquiry may yield the answers the families are searching for...

The HQ can only hope...

Hillsborough 2014 Inquests Begin

((HT: BBC))

Lord Justice Goldring, in charge of the new Hillsborough inquests, has instructed his jury that no Liverpool fan of the 96 who died in 1989 are to be blamed for their deaths.

The jury heard police accounts of what happened that day were changed with critical comments about police leadership and fans changed. Police officers also had questions that were omitted when they were Xeroxed and sent for analysis later that year and into the 1990's.

South Yorkshire police officers had been asked to write their own accounts of what happened as part of the investigation. Senior officers and lawyers for the force altered some of the statements before they were passed to West Midlands Police, which was investigating the tragedy. Although, West Midlands did not pursue most of the omissions that they apparently new existed in the photocopies they received

Here's the story from outside...


The jury of 7 women and 4 men will have to decide if the amended statements they will be going over have any weight in allaying any initial malpractice or lack of a performance of police duties...

New Hillsborough Inquests Underway At Liverpool

((HT: Sky Sports))

For those of you unfamiliar, it was one of the darkest days in all of football...

96 fans lost their lives and another 766 people were injured after a crush in an enclosed and overcrowded terrace at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium on April 15, 1989. This happened during the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest...

Here's how ITV News covered the disaster


In some of the most shameful cover-ups ever, it was discovered by the Hillsborough Independent Panel in September 2012 that no Liverpool fans were responsible for the deaths. Attempts had been made by local police authorities to conceal what happened- including the changing the content of 116 witness statements relating to the disaster.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police- David Crompton, Football Association Chairman- David Bernstein, and Kelvin MacKenzie, then-editor of The Sun newspaper, all apologized at the time.

Here's how BBC's "Panorama" program covered all the shenanigans...


In September 2012, the Panel concluded that up to 41 of the 96 fatalities might have been avoided had they received prompt medical treatment.

A new series of inquests were ordered in December 2012 when the High Court set aside the original death verdicts. The proceedings are expected to last up to 12 months as families hope they finally get the answers they have been chasing for a quarter-century.

The Ministry of Justice has built the biggest courtroom in England and Wales in an office building near the town of Warrington, to host them. A jury will hear the evidence and will be asked to decide on the verdict- an unusual step in inquests like these.