KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Deafening silence from the F.A.

FA chairman will issue a broadcast apology later today apparently.

i dont think the FA got an easy job over this tbh.. it's been 23 years, i guess the ppl in power back then, aren't anymore.
they should answer the questions, it's not today's guy that are at fault.
an apology, ofcourse.
i'd rather have the decision makers of 1989 coming with a statement

"On behalf of the FA, we are deeply sorry this tragedy occurred at a stadium the FA selected. I offer a full and unreserved apology," Bernstein said.

Not sure if this is the full statement or just a snippet but surely they ought to write something longer than a sentence?

Apparently Peter Robinson had written to them previously, requesting that Liverpool fans not be allocated the Leppings Lane end. I never knew that.

is this an apology? blaming it 100 percent on the stadium/police, not on FA inertia, still; i reserve jugement as i don't know what the role of the FA was in this. I imagine they did nothing as usual though.

Secondly, there were lessons to be learned for everybody involved in football; sounds like donkey bolloc*s to me. Merely blaming the stadium selection itself and not more fundamental failures going on around that time, namely lack of communication isnt enough.

MP Andy Burnham has called on the Football Association to explain why the 1989 FA Cup semi-final was held at Hillsborough despite the ground not having a valid safety certificate.

Due to a breakdown in the relationship between Sheffield Wednesday and South Yorkshire Police, the ground was effectively unsuitable to host any football match, let alone the sell-out semi between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Twice before had supporters escaped unharmed when a similar crush almost occurred.

Burnham told Sky News on Thursday: "The FA need to ask themselves some serious questions. The main one is why did they allow a semi-final to be played at a ground without a valid safety certificate?

"I don't think there's an answer that people can accept because I think it was because of negligence of people's safety. Why were supporters allowed to go into those unsafe conditions and did the FA know of those other near misses at other semi-finals such as 1981 Wolves v Spurs and 1987 involving Leeds?

"I remember going to Hillsborough the year before and having one of the most distressing experiences of my life. All of these things were known about Hillsborough, how did nobody in football act upon them?''

Just makes me sick reading this to be honest, its like they wanted people to get killed and did it on purpose. Absolutely astonishing.

The following was published on the Swedish LFC Site yesterday:

"FA ignored warnings from 1988

The year before the tragedy at Hillsborough happened, exactly the same sides (LFC and Nottingham) played the semifinals of the FA Cup at the same arena.

After the match -88 were several comments to the English Football Association, from the visiting fans, that the arena did not feel safe for visitors.

Several complained that they stood in such crowds that on occasions they couldn't breathe - and several suggested that they nearly fainted.

FA, however, ignored these reports and listened rather flatly to the police, who claimed that the match - and the crowd situation - proceeded without problems. The then FA chief Graham Kelly was the one who made the decision that the 1989 semi-final would be played at Hillsborough.

When Kelly was contacted yesterday on account of information he would not comment on the events and decisions that led to the largest catastrophy in English football history. He said simply that he had "no comments" to the whole thing.

Even after the tragedy in 1989 Kelly went out on national radio and spread the false information that police fed him with. This he did however choose not to comment on yesterday".

Absoultely stunning / shocking!

Always thought kelly was a t***er