[Lord Snooty]

I think one question that seems to have gone unasked is, after crushes in 81 and 88, how on earth did Hillsborough get another semi?

[St Charles Owl]

I think one question that seems to have gone unasked is, after crushes in 81 and 88, how on earth did Hillsborough get another semi?

You are bang on with that question and it also throws up why the FA are not on the list of bodies that contributed to this whole thing??  Lessons were never learned from previous incidents both at Hillsborough and at other grounds.  The Government and Police at that time were on a mission to curb hooliganism, using whatever tactics they could to prevent it, and they did this at the expenses of safety for the average football fan.

---

I'm angry on a number of fronts.

Laying blame to those fans outside the ground pushing to get in, they just wanted to see a football match, had the incompetent SYP done the job of crowd control correctly nobody would've have died in a crush that day.
As for the fans who rushed through to the central pens, again what do you think anyone is going to do..they want to watch football so go the nearest and quickest rout onwards the pitch. Unfortunately the police failed to implement something called the Freeman Tactic which would close the central pens to further crowding. When asked Duckingfield said he'd never heard of it. Even though it had been used at previous semi finals

Its not a case of laying blame on the fans outside pushing and shoving, that is what happened all over the country, that was the norm back then.  But however sorry we feel for those at the front who ultimately died, one of the causes of this disaster was the pushing and shoving going on outside that eventually forced the police into opening the gate to try to ease the congestion.  If you take blame out of this and just look at what caused it, the problems outside and the ensuing crush is one of those factors.

Ultimately as with any incident like this it ends up being almost a perfect storm and one thing compounds the next as decision after decision has a knock on effect.  I believe the root cause, the first poor decision that started this whole chain of events was the day that SYP decided that they were going to replace the match superintendent with Duckenfield.  Not that Duckenfield was a bad policeman by any stretch, but they guy he was replacing had 20 odd years experience of leading the police operation at Hillsborough and it was him that altered the operation over the years to prevent over crowding of the pens and outside the turnstiles.  He was removed for disciplinary reasons but he was never involved in any meetings after that point and as a consequence Duckenfield was never fully briefed by the one officer who knew of the safety issues and how to alleviate them. Duckenfield I believe admitted that his sole focus was on hooliganism and he had zero familiarity with the ground or the surroundings.

[Lord Snooty]

Apparently, the previous match superintendent had been moved to Barnsley to sort out troublesome miners. That's why the inexperienced, but ridiculously arrogant Duckinfield, was given the job.
So in conclusion, your honor. It's her again, innit! Her with her obsession with crushing the poor downtrodden mineworkers.
Margaret Bloody Thatcher.
I just knew it would all be down to her in the end.

[theo_luddite]

Having read through the Guardian article, it seems it wasn't just fans at the front that were already in the pens that got crushed, which is pretty much all that I had seen reported before. Some were still outside when the gates were opened and they rushed in to what became their own death trap too.

Anyone that had been to a match at Hillsborough before that attracted a big crowd and tried to get in those middle pens minutes before the kick-off would have known that they would likely be full by then and would probably have gone to one side or the other if they didn't let the excitement of the moment get to them. There still isn't a standing terrace anywhere, football or both codes of rugby, behind the goals that fills up ends first and middle last and for the police to be ignorant of it is unforgivable.

Duckinfield, who eventually admitted he'd never even been to the ground before let alone that end, was completely ignorant of the issue and didn't order the closing off of the middle pens when he ordered the outside gate to be opened. He, and SYP, have spent the last 27 years blaming the fans for a problem that he (and his gaffer to some large extent for changing the officer in charge ) ultimately caused. I can see him and a few other lying toads having a few sleepless nights at one of Her Majesty's Full Board establishments in the not too distant future. SYP continued to treat football supporters as hooligans first and human beings second, in my experience, for many, many years after this incident and not just in Sheffield.

[Lord Snooty]

Meanwhile in the nicer part of Sheffield, it's been a cracking evening's entertainment at the Crucible.
There must've been some football fans sat in the front row. By the time it came to the tense final frame, there were empty seats.
Got to beat the traffic, eh!

[theo_luddite]

Smithies not getting games in goal for QPR recently.

[WakeyTerrier]

Bournemouth fined £7.6million for breaking FFP, they lost £38.3million in 14/15 season and had a wage bill of £30.4million

[theo_luddite]

I'll believe it when I see evidence of them paying any of it.

[WakeyTerrier]

It's in their accounts so has already been paid

[theo_luddite]

So I see and fair play to them for actually paying it rather than dragging it out like QPR have done, but was the fine for the promotion season or the previous season? Considering the accounts are to the end of July last season it would have been pretty quick work by the FL to fine them so soon after that season ended and their accounts have only just been published. With the club by then in the Premier League the FL wouldn't be able to touch them. Be interesting to see if there's another "fine" awaiting them if they get relegated.

It's not impossible to move payments into one financial year or the other if the invoice is dated accordingly so the pain is dealt with and they move on. Lots of companies do similar things at year end with their accounts.

I know clubs have to file quarterly statements with the FL so it could have come from that but typically the FL just imposes a transfer embargo at that stage (Forest, Blackburn and others) and calculates the fines once the full accounts are in. It appears they broke the £6 million loss "barrier" the season before too so is this fine related to that loss? It doesn't say in the accounts, it just says they were fined for breaking the FFP rules but it doesn't say when they broke them.

Either way, as I said all along when Bournemouth got promoted, if anyone thought Town were playing on a level playing field against them financially then they were seriously deluded. Whilst I don't doubt the credentials as a coach of Eddie Howe, his job is a whole lot easier to do when the board of directors are throwing funny money at it to help him.