96 football fans die and no one is to blame

April 15, 1989. England looks forward to the battle of the giants between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest. As usual for a semi-final in the FA Cup, the game takes place on neutral ground. The venue is the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield – nobody suspects that it will be the scene of one of the worst catastrophes in the history of football.

The game is set to kick off at 3 p.m. local time. All tickets are sold out in advance, the local police are expecting 53,000 spectators. Strangely enough, the outnumbered Liverpool fans are assigned the smaller “Lepping Lane” grandstand. This is to prevent them from coming across the trailers from Nottingham Forest coming from the south. Law enforcement officers are commanded by chief of police David Duckenfield, the 45-year-old’s first assignment during a football game.

His inexperience explains why there are complications in front of the stadium. Liverpool supporters will later express their astonishment at the lack of police presence and the chaotic conditions at the entrance. The problem: More than ten thousand Liverpool fans are supposed to enter the stadium via just seven hubs. Once this is done, a narrow tunnel follows that leads directly to sectors 3 and 4. The two areas are separated from one another and from the playing field by metal grids up to three meters high.

“Open Gate C” – the devastating decision of the police

Shortly before kick-off, “Pen 3” and “Pen 4” are already overcrowded – the sectors next to them tend to remain empty due to the difficult accessibility. Meanwhile, thousands are still waiting to enter the stadium. The crowds at the turnstiles are getting stronger – fans fear they will miss the start of the game.

The impatient crowd induces the police to make their next mistake. For fear of a mass panic outside the stadium, Duckenfield decides to open an additional gate, the “Gate C”. Relieved, tens of thousands of spectators immediately flock to the stadium. What Duckenfield does not consider: The gate also leads directly to sectors 3 and 4.

It doesn’t take long for the fans in the stands to be squeezed to such an extent that they can no longer move. Before the kick-off, the first spectators climb over the high metal grids onto the pitch. There are few lucky ones – the rest are crushed to death by acquaintances, friends or family members. When the crowd realizes what is happening to them, the first to cry out for help.

“Bruce, please help us!”

Bruce Grobbelaar, who stood for Liverpool that day, later reports of pale faces begging for help. «I wanted to get the ball behind the gate when I saw people being pushed against the fence. ‹Bruce, please help us!› They shouted. »

More and more spectators are climbing over the fence onto the playing field, but law enforcement officers misinterpret this as a sign of an impending blast and try to push fans back into their sectors.

At 3:06 p.m., Grobbelaar referee Ray Lewis succeeds in convincing them to stop the game. He also tries to get a folder to open a saving gate. However, it does not have the key. The struggle for survival in Sectors 3 and 4 continues. More and more people are now climbing over the barriers, making it possible for those moving up to flee. The pressure slowly releases and the survivors pour onto the field.

However, the next tragedy follows immediately. Apart from the fans, there are no helpers on site for a long time. In retrospect, the British judiciary will report that 41 lives could have been saved by an improved emergency response process and faster medical assistance. You didn’t. 96 people die. 38 of them are not yet 20 years old.

Years of injustice and no guilty parties

In the days after the disaster, blame is placed on fans. Above all, the English “Sun” reports under the title “The Truth” (the truth) of fans who peed on police officers, robbed the dead and beat paramedics. For this reason, the tabloid is boycotted all over Liverpool to this day.

Police commander Duckenfield, who witnessed the events from his surveillance box in the southwest of the stands up close, also denies any guilt. He claims that the additional open gate was broken open by Liverpool fans. He later admits that he lied.

However, it takes 23 years for the authorities to take the blame. It was only on September 12, 2012 that Prime Minister David Cameron apologized to the bereaved of the 96 victims and released the audience at the time from any guilt. The process is then followed by several people, including Duckenfield.

On April 26, 2016, a jury decided that the 96 victims were not killed, but “illegally killed.” There are no convictions. On November 28, 2019, more than 30 years after the events, police commander David Duckenfield was finally acquitted. The defense had argued that the 75-year-old was overwhelmed at the time.

To date, no one is to blame for the death of the 96 football fans.

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