Fairy decent article from The Times Online.
How should football pay its respects 20 years after Hillsborough?
Oliver Kay
There will be no minuteās silence at this seasonās FA Cup semi-finals to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Black armbands will be worn by the players of all four clubs, but, while there will be a minuteās applause before the match between Arsenal and Chelsea on Saturday, April 18, there are no plans for any further tribute when Everton meet Manchester United the day after.
This difficult decision was reached after dialogue between the FA and the Hillsborough Family Support Group ā and, before conspiracy theories take hold, it is understood to have been made before the semi-final line-up was known. But if a minuteās silence does not seem appropriate, then nor does a minuteās applause ā not for the kind of sombre reflection that Hillsborough should elicit in every football supporter. So how exactly should football pay its respects to the 96 Liverpool fans who travelled to Sheffield on April 15, 1989, and never came home?
The best answer is a simple one: education. Last yearās 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, which was managed with great dignity by Manchester United, allowed a generation of fans to learn more about a tragedy that is woven into the fabric of our national sport. Compared with the tale of those fun-loving, though ill-fated, Busby Babes, the story of Hillsborough is unremittingly grim ā even the Taylor report, heavy on legal jargon, alternately turns the stomach and sends shivers down the spine ā but it is one that merits a level of understanding that, 20 years on, does not seem to exist.
There is a staggering amount of ignorance, much of it wilful. At first there was the smear campaign against Liverpoolās supporters, orchestrated from within South Yorkshire Police in an appalling attempt to divert attention from the āfailure of police controlā that the Taylor report blamed for the disaster. Then there are the myths that are lapped up by rival fans, who, ignoring the police negligence on the day and the complacency that allowed a semi-final to take place at a ground that did not have an up-to-date safety certificate, prefer to blame their fellow football supporters rather than the inhumane treatment to which they had long grown accustomed by the late 1980s.
Even the families of the victims seem unsure how they want you to mark the anniversary, perhaps reflecting the range of emotions that endure to this day. But whether or not you are asked to stand in silent reflection, take a moment or two to remind yourself what really happened. The truth, the real truth, is out there.
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