Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

25 years have passed since 96 lost their lives at a Football match, yes a Football match, and my heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one that day.

Are we though be a little to sentimental when it comes to Hillsborough? I can understand those teams involved with the tragedy having a minutes silence, but charlton vs barnsley? Even all the EPL games was imo, over the top. Every year there seems to be some special reason for paying our respects.

And what about the Bradford fire, when 56 innocent people were killed when a stand caught fire? Are they less important?

I'm all for paying respects, but are we overdoing things when it comes to Hillsborough?

You make some good points DR, but people never like to bring these things up because it doesn't seem appropriate to do so.

Absolutely horrendous day back in 1989 for all those involved and 25 years on they are still trying to get to the bottom of who is responsible and how the blame can be apportioned.

I remember watching the1985 European Cup final with a scouse friend of mine in Prescott and I remember him being in shock that day and vowing he would never support Liverpool again. I wouldn't have thought many people in Turin would have been paying their respects yesterday.

Yes, Heysel has been swept under the carpet by some. I would never say Liverpool cannot grieve as some of their supporters were responsible for the deaths of Juventus fans though. They are two separate incidents. That said, I work with a Juventus fan who definitely doesn't pay his respects, and although I don't like the bloke, I understand his reasoning.

Not forgetting the ibrox tragedy either.

Indeed, not forgetting Ibrox.

Dr Robert wrote:25 years have passed since 96 lost their lives at a Football match, yes a Football match, and my heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one that day.

Are we though be a little to sentimental when it comes to Hillsborough? I can understand those teams involved with the tragedy having a minutes silence, but charlton vs barnsley? Even all the EPL games was imo, over the top. Every year there seems to be some special reason for paying our respects.

And what about the Bradford fire, when 56 innocent people were killed when a stand caught fire? Are they less important?

I'm all for paying respects, but are we overdoing things when it comes to Hillsborough?

When I looked at all the weekends matches kicking off at 7 minutes later than scheduled, I thought the BBC made a blunder. The 7 minutes later than usual kick off for the top 8 divisions in England, minutes silence, reserving 96 seats etc it's bordering on glorification rather than a remembrance. Also ironic when Liverpool FC refuse to play on the day of Hillsborough and IIRC kicked up a fuss when they faced the possibility of playing a FA Cup semi-final two years ago on the day of the tragedy.

The Bradford Fire was a traumatic affair by those affected on that day and a too sensitive subject to be publicised akin to Hillsborough.

Yes I think it is over doing it, and I think it will be overdone as long as the guilt is still there. The sooner the fans admit some responsibility, the sooner they will heal and move on. You can't live in the past otherwise you might as well be six feet under.

By the way I'm not saying there shouldn't be a mourning period, and everyone obviously takes different amounts of time to get through a loss, but if you're still mourning after 25 years then you should have had counseling 20 odd years ago.

"Counselor, counselor. Come out, come out where ever you are"

Its hard to bear the calls for "Justice 96" when every high profile Liverpool sympathiser begins their points on Heysel with the "well, we did say about the state of the stadium before hand". It seems that every player in that Heysel team distances and twists the arguments away from the sole biggest cause.... the Liverpool fans charging. Even when Liverpool hosted Juventus in 2005 for the first time, they never apologised by memory, they only tried to create this fake friendship and embrace the positives.... which was a pretty lame apology, in my eyes.

Having said that, Juventus hardly acknowledged Heysel afterwards.... and that is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. While Liverpool conveniently buried the issue when it happened to them, their reaction has at least made sure that the process of change and improvement occurred, and is not forgotten. Post-Hillsborough action made football the family sport it is now, and made it a safe venture that is well policed.... it changed the event management and safety management of all events!

In contrast, Juventus are to this day criticised by their handling of their fans.... the poor transport links to the game, the poor state of the grounds and the way fans are treated, the violence in the sport.... they didn't learn anything by ignoring the implications of Heysel.

Then again, did Bradford not already give us the lesson we needed? Or was a few 2nd division lives not as convincing as top division?

In the end you have to say that Britain should have moved on after Bradford, should have learned another quick lesson after about grounds and policing, and should have made sure Hillsborough never happened. Those lessons weren't learned, and that was to do with Thatcher and her government hating the sport and seeing it as scumbags who wanted nothing better to fight(the links to those that were fighting were often found in the discontent they showed Thatchers government, ironically), rather than provide better conditions and thought processes.