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Hello. We’ve uncovered major safety concerns at the ground which witnessed English football’s worst stadium disaster. Have lessons been learned?
Plus: Mauricio Pochettino emerges as a top USMNT target and David de Gea finds a new club.
Special Report: Safety problems at Hillsborough 35 years after tragedy
Chris Vaughan – CameraSport via Getty Images; edit by John Bradford
Anybody who remembers the Hillsborough disaster remembers the news filtering through: where they were when it first reached them, and the harrowing imagery. Catastrophic crushing at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in 1989 cost 97 Liverpool supporters their lives.
It remains the worst tragedy in British sporting history.
Hillsborough engulfed those left behind. I spoke to relatives of two of the victims last year and the emotional impact on them is not quantifiable. If you can, find 20 minutes in your day to take in Simon Hughes’ interviews with fans who survived the disaster. It’s free to read.
Hillsborough Stadium, the neutral venue for that semi-final, is the home of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, a proud old team with roots in Yorkshire that stretch back to 1867.
The ground turns 125 next month and one of many findings in the aftermath of 1989 was that it was dangerous; old, poorly designed and fatally unfit for purpose.
Now, 35 years later, an investigation by The Athletic has uncovered fresh concerns about the safety of the stand in which Liverpool’s fans were crushed: the West Stand or, colloquially, the Leppings Lane End.
The stand — which holds Hillsborough away crowds — has changed to an extent. There is seating in the lower tier, replacing the standing terrace where those killed in the disaster were penned in.
But supporters of six clubs, most of whom attended Hillsborough as away fans in the past two seasons, told The Athletic that aspects of the Leppings Lane End left them feeling genuinely at risk.
How could this be, at a venue where English football’s darkest day compelled the game to make sure it could never be repeated?
Supporters’ concerns
Sheffield Wednesday hold a valid safety certificate for Hillsborough, so the ground is cleared to stage Football League matches.
A statement from the club insisted the certificate was strictly adhered to and said they “operate a completely safe stadium”, in conjunction with local authorities.
The Athletic’s Jacob Whitehead, however, used Freedom of Information requests and documentation from organisations such as South Yorkshire Police to uncover concerns about the state of the Leppings Lane End — some of them serious.
Congestion involving Newcastle United fans in 2023 — regarded by Sheffield City Council as a “near miss” — prompted to a 20 per cent reduction in the stand’s capacity.
Some of the fans spoken to said they felt uncomfortable rather than in danger. But others disclosed more worrying problems in the away end, outside its entrance and in the Leppings Lane concourses.
A Leeds United supporter described an elderly woman struggling to breathe in a crush of bodies.
The families of the Hillsborough victims fought for years — and in the face of terrible smears from the media, police and politicians — to secure an inquest verdict of unlawful killing, rightly a gross injustice.
A lawyer with extensive knowledge of the tragedy, Pete Weatherby KC, said he was “deeply shocked” by Jacob’s findings — at a ground which has seen first-hand the human price of safety failings.
Cult of the manager
We had a long chat about Enzo Maresca at Chelsea on The Athletic FC podcast yesterday. I fear for Maresca, slightly. His team look pretty porous. His squad list is more like an NFL roster than a Premier League payroll. How to turn a cast of thousands into a smoking-hot team?
You’ll tell me he’s new to the job and that building Rome was an evolving project over many, many years. True. It’s also the case that Chelsea’s strategy depends on them staying the course patiently. The Athletic’s Liam Twomey summed it up by describing their squad as an investment portfolio. Maresca’s style is supposedly compatible with it.
So, in theory, he should get time. But nothing about the two years in which Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have run Chelsea suggests he’ll get much leeway. Oli Kay has touched on this today: the dying light of the days when a club’s manager was omnipotent. A select few, such as Pep Guardiola, remain all-powerful but the majority are cogs in the machine.
It’s become a paradox of football. Clubs don’t want everything to revolve around one coach. They want their coach to fit into their plan, rather than the other way around. But when the plan falters, one person inevitably gets it in the neck, regardless of the blueprint being bigger than them.
Maresca will be the man. Until he isn’t. Plus ca change.
Pochettino in USMNT frame
All of which segues into Mauricio Pochettino. Remember him? The boss Chelsea went for because his “ethos, tactical approach and commitment to development made him the exceptional candidate”?
I’ll be charitable and say the partnership fell just short, which left Pochettino at a loose end. And, according to sources spoken to by The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio, he’s bang in contention for the vacant USMNT job, no less than a top target.
Poch to the U.S. would be a bigger deal for the USMNT than for the man himself. That’s fair to say. But in aiming high, he’s far more realistic an option than Jurgen Klopp and perhaps this could suit both sides.
I’m not seeing an obvious club move for Pochettino. An international job would give him the project he hasn’t had since Tottenham Hotspur. A long shot, maybe. But not out of the question.
Thierry’s Time?
(Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
Coaching at the Olympics is uniquely complex in the sense that nations are powerless to prevent players (or their clubs) refusing call-ups. Kylian Mbappe at the Games was a lovely idea — but also a complete fantasy.
So while Thierry Henry has a tidy clutch of players with him, he’s done well to get France to the Olympic final. It’s between them and Spain for the gold medal today (TV details below) and victory would mark the first real success of Henry’s coaching career.
The way managerial recruitment works at international level, he must have an eye on the top job with France — because Didier Deschamps can’t go on forever, and promoting from below is in vogue.
Fingers crossed the final in Paris is better than yesterday bronze match. Egypt phoned it in and lost 6-0 to Morocco. The last goal, from Achraf Hakimi, though? Decent. Very decent…
Around The Athletic FC
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Quiz Question
The Community Shield takes place at Wembley on Saturday. It’s Premier League champions Manchester City against FA Cup winners Manchester United, in a repeat of last season’s FA Cup final.
England’s annual curtain-raiser isn’t always a good guide of who will go on to win the title. So today’s challenge: name the six clubs who have won the shield in the Premier League era but finished sixth or lower in the subsequent league campaign.
We’ll give you the answer in Monday’s TAFC. You’ll also find it here later today.
Catch A Match
Today: Olympic Games men’s final: France vs Spain, (12pm/5pm) — Peacock Premium/USA Network, Eurosport
Tomorrow: Olympic Games women’s final: Brazil vs U.S, (11am/4pm) — NBC/Peacock Premium, Eurosport; Community Shield: Manchester City vs Manchester United, (10am/3pm) — ESPN+, ITV
Plus, it’s the start of the new Championship season. Check out the title favourites: Leeds United vs Portsmouth, (7.30am/12.30pm) — CBS/Paramount+, Sky Sports
