Why Crawley Town Did Liverpool Football Club a Massive Favour
Yesterday
the minnows of Crawley Town paid Liverpool Football Club a massive favour. They were playing Manchester United in the FA
Cup and of course needed a sponsor to cover their expenses.
Fortunately/Unfortunately for them, they chose a certain newspaper from the
News International Group. Knowing the way that particular newspaper works, I
suspect they thought it was a great way of ensuring their readership went up. How
wrong they may well have been. As soon
as Liverpool supporters became aware of the sponsor's name on the shirts of the
Crawley players, a massive campaign was started on Twitter and Facebook to make
people aware of the situation. The consequences of which meant that Crawley
lost an awful lot of supporters like myself, who support the minnows in a major
competition, when Liverpool are not involved. Who
was that particular sponsor, some of you may ask, although if you do you are
not a true Liverpool supporter or simply have not been informed of the true
facts. The sponsor was a certain
newspaper who up until April 1989 had a decent readership in the North
West. Then due to The Hillsborough
disaster, it collapsed and has continued to fall ever since. There was a story earlier this year that a
journalist from that particular rag when asked by the hotel receptionist what
paper he would like delivered each morning, was told that it was not
available. He apparently looked rather
perplexed, because he simply could not understand why.
The
reason why of course is because of the lies this particular rag told about the
Hillsborough Disaster and its aftermath.
Something, which they have never apologised for and I suspect never
will. A certain Kelvin MacKenzie was the
editor at the time and according to stories, although he realised it could
cause problems with their readership in the North West, his superiors said they
would go ahead with the headline. I am
not naming names here, but I suspect a certain Rupert Murdoch, may have a lot
to do with this.
In
Kenny's biography, he recalls a telephone conversation that he had with Kelvin
MacKenzie and his answer simply was, admit you lied, he then replaced the
receiver.
As
I have said this has never been done, and in part yesterday due to their own
incompetence, we began to spread the word as to why the Rag is not welcome or
read on Merseyside. We also gave out
links of where people could find out all the information they needed on
Hillsborough. The one I recommended is
at the end of this blog.
I
think it took off in a way that none of us could have imagined. It was re-tweeted by several people attached
to the club as well, which of course helps. What was also pleasing that for all
us, was that we began to receive tweets from the supporters of other clubs, who
having read the information provided, said that they would never touch or read
the rag again.
It
has of course also revived the need to get the information out here and aim it
the people that need to understand how and why the rag is not tolerated. So much so that there are now fresh campaigns
starting to spread the word even further, one of which I understand will be
aimed at the advertisers which use the rag to spread their products.
As
I have said the link I always give to people is this one.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/archive/The-Hillsborough-disaster-The-darkest-day-in-British-football-history-article392289.html
It
is a fantastic archive of photographs and articles from the 15th April 1979 to
the present day about the disaster. I have also contributed to this but of
course my effort is miniscal compared to the work of the journalists and
photographers, who at the time ensured that the truth was made public. In fact the Mirror is fully behind the
campaign to ensure that finally the 96 get the justice that they deserve.
So
although you did not win yesterday Crawley, thank you so much for putting it
back into the public arena.
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Crawley out-played Man Hoof aswell, but the long ball merchants from Salford, the worlds luckiest and most overrated football team just about managed to desperately hang on to scrape the win against the non league side.
What I can never understand is how Kelvin MacKenzie gets so much work on TV, and this is even more galling as most of it is on the BBC. Prior to the last General Election he was constantly on Question time and did a lot to enhance the Tory party agenda. He is no doubt being funded by Rupert the Bare faced Liar Murdoch.
I complained to the BBC on a number of occasions but they never had the decency to give a reply.
Let me get this straight....no-one on the planet is allowed to do business with the sun in case it upsets some liverpool fans.
Wow.
Peter Gill, You are either very ignorant or naive. For a start it not only upsets all Liverpool fans but the vast majority of the people of Merseyside and Sheffield that the Kelvin MacKenzie & The Sun told such blatant lies about the incident and the supporters. They later offered what was a half hearted apology to try and rebuild their circulation, this was later retracted by the excuse for a human being Kelvin MacKenzie.
Peter Gill you should hang your head in shame for even making such comments without researching the subject you are commenting on.
I heard a rumour that when West Brom get relegated, fergie is wanting to get Roy Hodgson to take over the reins of United... Apparently they are good friends and fergie would give him all the time he needs to rebuild... Please let this be true :D
Shut it Gill this has NOTHING to do with you
To United fans trolling here, imagine the sun did some horrible sensationalist spread after the munich disaster. Imagine that, and then come back with snide comments. Rivally is one thing, but willfully writing a sensationalist diatribe in the aftermath of hillsborough, should not be forgotten, or repeated ever. This issue goes beyond football, and should be remembered.
It's not just LFC fans that don't read that paper, but anyone who remembers or knows what happened.
Unfortunately, you will not like this response. While the world were shocked about this terrible tragedy beamed live around the world. There is always a tendency to blame others except the fans of a football club. Like Man. Utd Liverpool fans are always right and the owners are always wrong! The reality is that English football at the time was plagued with hooliganism including Italy and some others. Who killed the Italian fans in Turin? Who turned up at Hillsborough drunk and without tickets? Of course there were major security mistakes like in all tragedies. The police cannot accept responsibility for everybody's behaviour or should they? You can blame the newspapers, previous owners etc. it won't change the fact that the root cause of the incident rests with Liverpool fans. The irony is that those who were there legitimately paid a heavy price for them and their loved ones. However, has any of the 10000s who were forcing their way (drunk and disorderly) face the consequences? Absolutely not because the fans are always right. I think it's time to move on and focus on the football and stop this business of blaming others for your own problems. Hope you don't blame me for inciting violence now!
I am a Man. Utd fan of course. The papers and some Man City/Liverpool fans can say, sing and write whatever they want about Munich Disaster. The facts are there to see. Liverpool fans can continue to throw shit at wounded players and yet they are known to be the best supporters in the world. You are now vilifying Torres. Hopefully he won't receive the same treatment. Please reflect and understand others too can speak out when needs be, be it the Sun which I think is rubbish anyway.
Unfortunately, you will not like this response. While the world were shocked about this terrible tragedy beamed live around the world. There is always a tendency to blame others except the fans of a football club. Like Man. Utd Liverpool fans are always right and the owners are always wrong! The reality is that English football at the time was plagued with hooliganism including Italy and some others. Who killed the Italian fans in Turin? Who turned up at Hillsborough drunk and without tickets? Of course there were major security mistakes like in all tragedies. The police cannot accept responsibility for everybody's behaviour or should they? You can blame the newspapers, previous owners etc. it won't change the fact that the root cause of the incident rests with Liverpool fans. The irony is that those who were there legitimately paid a heavy price for them and their loved ones. However, has any of the 10000s who were forcing their way (drunk and disorderly) face the consequences? Absolutely not because the fans are always right. I think it's time to move on and focus on the football and stop this business of blaming others for your own problems. Hope you don't blame me for inciting violence now!
I am a Man. Utd fan of course. The papers and some Man City/Liverpool fans can say, sing and write whatever they want about Munich Disaster. The facts are there to see. Liverpool fans can continue to throw shit at wounded players and yet they are known to be the best supporters in the world. You are now vilifying Torres. Hopefully he won't receive the same treatment. Please reflect and understand others too can speak out when needs be, be it the Sun which I think is rubbish anyway.
Louis and Mamoo
The Taylor Report states something completely different to your cynical attempt to cause a problem! Fans waiting outside at Hillsborough had tickets for the Leppings Lane end. IF ever you learn the facts you will understand that the fencing at that end divided the terrace into three pens. Cram 1,500 fans into a pen designed for 500 and you end up with 96 dead and hundreds injured. The saddest part of this story is that, even allowing for police incompetence that day, if the two side fences were not there, nobody would have died.
On a side note, numerous Man Utd fans were injured when they played there in the early '80s, as were dozens of Spurs fans during the 1981 semi-final. And if the '89 fixtures had been switched it would have been 96 Everton fans. We could be mourning the deaths of fans from those clubs instead of those from Liverpool.
Please pass this on, as we might educate a few more people to the reality of Hillsborough!