Running Heod: HILLSBOROUGH STADIUM DISASTER

Hillsborough Stadium Disaster

Hillsborough Stadium Disaster

Introduction

The Hillsborough Disaster was a deadly human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989, at Hillsborough, a football stadium home to Sheffield Wednesday in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people (all fans of Liverpool Football Club). It remains the deadliest stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the worst in international football.[1] It was the second of two stadium-related disasters to feature Liverpool supporters, the other being the Heysel Stadium Disaster in 1985. The match was an FA Cup semi-finals clash between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. It was abandoned six minutes into the first half. The inquiry into the disaster, the Taylor Report, named the cause as failure of police control, and resulted in the conversion of many football stadiums in the United Kingdom to all-seater and the removal of barriers at the front of stands.

Before the disaster

At the time, most United Kingdom football stadiums had placed high steel fencing and even barbed wire between the spectators and the pitch, in response to hooliganism which had plagued the sport for years. Hooliganism was particularly virulent in England, where it often involved pitch invasions, the throwing of missiles, or both pre and post-match violence. British stadia had a history of crushes since the 1960s.

Hillsborough Stadium was a regular venue for FA Cup semi-finals during the 1980s, hosting a total of five. A previous crush had occurred in the same stand during the 1981 semi-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, causing a total of 38 injuries.[3] This prompted Sheffield Wednesday to alter the design of the Leppings Lane end, dividing it into three separate pens. This was further divided into five pens when Wednesday were promoted to the First Division in 1984.[4] Liverpool and Nottingham Forest had also met at the semi-final stage of the same competition at the same ground the previous year with many Liverpool fans reporting crushing in the Leppings Lane end, leading to Liverpool FC lodging a complaint prior to the 1989 FA Cup Semi-Final.

The disaster

April 15th 1989, saw the worst disaster in the history of English football; 96 Liverpool fans attending their team's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's ground, Hillsborough, were crushed to death on the Leppings Lane terrace, and English football would never be the same again. The disaster was basically caused by the failure of South Yorkshire Police to control a large crowd of Liverpool fans outside the Leppings Lane End, and the poor state of the ground, but it was also clear that football's total failure to learn from the numerous disasters that had afflicted it during the twentieth century, and a police force conditioned to view supporters as potential hooligans and so always expecting violence, contributed significantly to the 96 deaths and many hundreds of injuries.

Liverpool had been allocated the Leppings Lane End of the ground, and it was outside this end from, about 2.30pm that a large crowd of fans had built ...