Hillsborough Disaster -- YNWA!

I was supposed to post this last week but didn’t have the chance because the Visayas Regionals of the PFF Suzuki U23 National Cup preoccupied me. I wanted to do that in remembrance as well as to stand alongside my favorite football club. Liverpool FC.

Last April 15 was the 22^nd anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster where 96 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death during the 1989 FA Cup semifinals match between LFC and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, the home field of Sheffield Wednesday FC.

I remember reading about it in the newspapers and was dumfounded about it. And I recalled a similar incident in 1979 at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati where 11 fans were also crushed to death during a concert by The Who.

My father knew I loved going to concerts and after that tragedy in Cincinnati, he had me stop attending them. Later on, he did allow me but only with the sternest reminders for safety. I do remember a near riot at the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City that I never told him about. Or another one in the Music Museum where fans broke down the front door and as a result cops had to be called in. Imagine that – the band was playing but there were all these cops on stage carrying automatic weapons. And they were shoving fans who went up on the stage who were trying to dive.

The resulting investigation of the Hillsborough Disaster cited the failure of police control as the reason for the tragedy. One of the few good things to come out of this was that it saw the conversion of many football stadia into all-seaters. 

In remembrance of those who died on that day and for those who lost family and friends. YNWA!