Sports Media

After 34 Years, Police have Apologized for Hillsborough Disaster

Jerry Walker / Soccer / January 31, 2023

After 34 Years, Police have Apologized for Hillsborough Disaster

It has only taken 34 years, but police chiefs have finally apologized for the tragic events that happened at Hillsborough in 1989. Per an ESPN report, Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing issued an apology.

April 15, 1989, was the darkest day in English football when Liverpool met Nottingham Forest at the now infamous Hillsborough Stadium in the FA Cup semifinal. At the match, an overcrowding issue led to the deaths of 96 fans, now 97 after a victim died in 2021 due to lingering brain damage.

At the time police put the blame on the Liverpool fans that stormed the gates to get in to watch their team. Surviving spectators and families of the victims have long denied that this was the actual cause of the tragedy and that the police were more at fault.

Finally, after over three decades the British police have admitted their fault.

“Policing has profoundly failed those bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster over many years and we are sorry that the service got it so wrong,” Chief Constable Andy Marsh, CEO of the College of Policing, said in a statement. “Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since.”

They not only apologized for their wrongdoing but also apologized for the “pain and suffering” that was caused to the families of the victims.

“(I am) deeply sorry for the tragic loss of life” and for the “pain and suffering that the families of the 97 victims experienced on that day,” Martin Hewitt, the NPCC Chair, said.

It is good to see that the police have finally apologized, but it is still too late. There could have been measures to stop this from happening, but hopefully, they have learned and the events at Hillsborough will never happen again.