Hillsborough

It is April 15, 1989 and Britain has just witnessed the worst sporting disaster in its history.

At the Hilsborough Stadium in Sheffield a number of events led to 96 Liverpool supporters being crushed to death in a panicked stampede.  The blame will never fully be stamped on anyone, The Sun Newspaper will become ostracised on Merseyside and every year football fans and the public will be forced to remember the tragic events.

This year was no different.  Following the disaster, Liverpool FC have refused to play on April 15 and many support groups and campaigns have been launched to try and shed light on the events and bring those responsible to justice.  New controversies have come to light, including Alan Davies - the celebrated comedian and seeming all round nice guy airing some unfortunate personal opinions in a podcast and Chelsea FC's supporters chanting and singing through the one minute silence at Wembley.

The question is, where do we go now? Will this be a memory and a point of controversy for the rest of time?  Will football ever be allowed to forget the tragedy? Should it ever be allowed to be forgotten?  Taking a look at some of the comments on Davies' Twitter thread would make you believe that Liverpool citizens still harbour a burning resentment and feeling of injustice for those who died during the stampede.

Now I accept that Twitter is the home of both the intellectually enlightened and the moronic.  There will be those who launch attacks on Davies who have never even been to Liverpool and have never even heard of Sheffield Wednesday.  Those who like to stir the cauldron untill the potion boils over and they should be treated with the same contempt as those who started the fire in the first place.

Comedians like Davies should take greater care in blazing their opinions over a controversial matter but I do feel sympathy for both parties.  The victims of Hillsborough will never be forgotten by their families and the event will never be far from the minds of anyone on April 15.  But will 'justice' ever be served? Are we honestly to believe that a forthright and frank apology from the Police, the Governement, The FA and Kelvin MacKenzie will make up for the loss of a loved one? No of course it won't...but it would help.

If this apology ever occurs then will we be able to allow the families of the victims to grieve in peace? Or will they be subjected to reliving the horrors and the torments every year for the rest of their lives.  Justice has not been done but the event will never happen again.  The repeated violence, the cages, the riots and the terraces - which are all associated with football in the 80s - are no more.  Times have changed, rules have been reset to ensure this type of tragedy never again graces the sporting stage.  Liverpool will never play on April 15 and they will never embrace The Sun newspaper (small surprise given MacKenzie's idiocy) and the families will never be allowed to truly be at peace with their grief. 

So every year the footballing nation will stand and pay its respect to an event that is fast fading from actual memories.  In fifty years time few, if any, survivors or families from that day will be left alive, but we shall still stand in silence to honour the dead.  Dead we didn't know, never met and will never understand.  It is what is right and what is respectful, if a little impersonal.

So to Davies, to Liverpudlians who wish harm on him and to all those of my generation, best put this down to something that we'll never understand and just show respect, even if it does feel forced.