From the Revd Stephen Cooper
Sir, - The Independent Panel report on
the Hillsborough disaster (
News and
Comment, 14 September) is absolutely clear that the police and
club officials of Sheffield Wednesday FC made a disastrous decision
to open the exit gates to allow the Liverpool fans into the ground
quickly before the game began, without adequate direction to
uncrowded areas of the Leppings Lane stands once inside, so causing
the crush and the deaths.
It is equally clear that, in their
efforts to cover up their failures in decision-making, some members
of the South Yorkshire Police are culpable of tampering with
evidence.
What is also clearly documented in the
report, though it has received almost no coverage in the following
media storm, is the degree to which decisions by the FA, Sheffield
Wednesday FC, and its safety consultants, as well as the long
history of football violence at that time, had created a situation
in which Hillsborough was a disaster waiting to happen.
The "safety" cages in football grounds
were installed in 1985 in part because of football's long history
of violence and pitch invasions, and in part because previous calls
to create all-seater, all-ticket stadia to reduce risks caused by
crowd flows had been rejected by the FA, clubs, and fans in a
desire to retain the atmosphere of stands.
Hillsborough had failed its safety
certification because of known issues of crowd safety and
overcrowding problems, especially at the Leppings Lane end, and yet
it was still chosen by the FA to hold the semi-final. It was clear
that it would be impossible to get the Liverpool fans into the
ground through an inadequate turnstile system before the match
started, but the officials would not delay the start of the match
the 45 minutes that, it is estimated, it would have been needed to
do so safely. This is perhaps, though I could not find reference to
it, because of the TV scheduling, which would have been disrupted
by such a delay.
None of this excuses the police and
club officials for their disastrous decisions made on the day, nor
the police's culpability in trying to cover them up by seeking to
blame the Liverpool fans. Any halfway honest assessment of the
Independent Report, however, would also make very clear that the
historical and structural failures of football, and safety issues
at the stadium, made such a disaster likely.
This was not something confined to
Hillsborough, as many other grounds were similarly inadequate,
often creating similar circumstances that were but a short step
from what happened on that tragic day. My memories of policing
football in the 1980s was that football grounds were scary places
to be as an ordinary police officer, especially after the
introduction of the "safety" cages. You never knew whether you
would be with fans who were going to have a joyous afternoon
supporting their club, or whether it would explode into violence.
This inevitably had a significant impact on the mindset of those
planning how to deal with fans at football matches, both police and
club officials.
I have every sympathy with the
families of those who died and were traumatised by the events at
Hillsborough, and it is right that their quest for justice should
be fulfilled. If that justice is to be fair, however, then
football's historical, structural, and local failures, which
created an inherently unsafe and dangerous situation, should also
carry their share of responsibility in the public arena.
STEPHEN COOPER
St Mary's Vicarage, Goosnargh Lane, Goosnargh, Lancashire PR3
2BN