13 September 2012

This sporting death

On Tuesday I tweeted that the real climax of 2012's great Summer of Sport was not Andy Murray winning the US Open, but the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report into that ill-fated FA Cup semi-final on 15 April 1989 (full report here). But as the full extent of the systematic abuse of due process emerged, I realised the difficulty in understanding why such a broad "coalition of culpability" took so long to be exposed is because of the revolution that has taken place in professional sport in the UK since those dark days.

If your only frame of reference is the modern stadia of the Premier League of today, it's hard to imagine what it was like to attend a professional football match back in the 1980s. Many people remember fondly the swaying terraces of Old Wembley in the pre-seats era. Me, I remember the toilets that probably defied the Geneva Convention, terrible noisome pissoirs as seemingly imagined by the men who built the Soviet Gulags. The frightening swaying terraced crowds, a baying monster of profanities that engulfed you and threatening to spit in your hair or stub its cigarette out on your neck. And the FA and government scratched their heads as to why violent thugs used to turn up at such venues to pick fights when the whole set-up seemed designed to entice them in at the expense at anyone else with basic social skills and awareness of personal hygiene. It's hard to pinpoint which came first in this particular chicken-and-egg scenario - did people behave like animals because they were treated like them, or vice versa?

Anyone under the age of 35 might be shocked that people were locked into cages to view football matches. But although unheeded warnings had apparently been given by Health & Safety professionals to the indifferent suits at the FA, at the time it seemed perfectly normal. The question of how to evacuate people from such enclosures was couched solely in terms of containing social disorder rather than protecting the lives of the fans themselves. This shows the extent to which football fans had become dehumanised and demonised into a collective mob in the eyes of many members of the press and, it must be said, the wider general public. And you don't have to look very far through the news reports of football matches of the day to see why.

And not to put too fine a point on it, by April 15, 1989 Liverpool FC were themselves four years into a ban from European football competitions because of the actions of their own fans. In such a context it is easy to see why The Sun's smears of drunken, violent, thieving yobs was seized upon as official explanation, and why it took so long to shake. Liverpool fans fitted the convention demanded by the narrative, because the alternative was more unpalatable: that we'd have to start treating football fans as human beings, with all the variety and complexity that entails, instead of members of a quasi-illegal militia.

The journey from the squalor of Hillsborough to the triumph of London 2012 was the slow dawning amongst a broader populace that watching and celebrating sporting achievements was an acceptable activity, and that if you raise the expectations of its fans, you can raise your own expectations of their behaviour. Hillsborough in 1989 seems shocking to us in 2012 not just because of the callous disregard for human life by contemptuous public bodies, but because the expectation of what public sporting occasions can and should be has changed so much. When so much talk around London 2012 is of "legacy", the Games themselves were the true legacy of Hillsborough: that you can go to a sporting occasion with the expectation of returning alive. What a pity it took 96 deaths to rise to that challenge.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

for StqurQgj [URL=http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/]ugg boots uk[/URL] and check coupon code available VBdhEnGV [URL=http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/ ] http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

best for you neEDSofD [URL=http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/]ugg boots ireland[/URL] for more detail oLzjlVkf [URL=http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/ ] http://www.cheapuggboots-onlineshop.blogspot.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

you will like EAKTALMo [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/]burberry quilted jacket[/URL] for more mEzhRKYa [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ ] http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

get dyGJmUFE [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/]burberry wallet[/URL] for promotion code XkGVFZYx [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ ] http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

view NUWdlOrF [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/]burberry outlet online[/URL] to take huge discount uFMwQBcy [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ ] http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

order an WKyocBaE [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ - burberry us[/URL - for more detail ambkjSPM [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ - http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL -

Anonymous said...

get HcyDaPUS [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/]burberry boots[/URL] for more detail GOpyxLGW [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ ] http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

you will like DXYWPgBH [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/]burberry online[/URL] online shopping KMTpGQnS [URL=http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ ] http://www.burberry--outlet-online.weebly.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

click YdfRELkI [URL=http://www.pradaoutlet2013.webs.com/]prada outlet online[/URL] for more detail kWgtvWKF [URL=http://www.pradaoutlet2013.webs.com/ ] http://www.pradaoutlet2013.webs.com/ [/URL]

Anonymous said...

It iѕ actuаlly a gгeat anԁ helpful pіeсе of information.
I am happy that you ѕhared this hеlpful info with us.

Plеasе ѕtay us informеd like this.
Thank уou fοr sharing.

Feel free to surf to my webpage - abrir cuenta facebook

Anonymous said...

Thanκs very inteгеsting blog!

Мy blog ... http://crearfacebook.webs.com/

Anonymous said...

Wоω that was oԁd. I јuѕt wrote an
incredibly long comment but aftеr Ӏ clickeԁ submit my comment didn't show up. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over
again. Regardlеsѕ, just wanteԁ
to say ωonԁeгful blog!

Also visit my web-site :: sefmtedu.btjt.nbku.vtre.qvofj.qypvthu.loqu.forum.mythem.es

Anonymous said...

Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up.

The words in your ρost seеm tο bе running οff the sсreen in Safari.
I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I'd post to lеt you
know. The dеsіgn and style loοκ greаt thοugh!
Hοpe уou gеt the issue resolveԁ ѕoon.
Ϲhеers

Look at my websіte ... weebly.com