[Archived] Hillsborough 96

[92er]

Nice touch

Would have been nicer unpublicised

What I read in the Independent today suggested the player was asked to publicise his donation to remind others the fund was still open.

[FGS5635]

What I read in the Independent today suggested the player was asked to publicise his donation to remind others the fund was still open.

Lets not let the truth get in the way of a silly witch hunt

[Rover95]

Nice gesture...My only question is - Why now? The fund has been around for a number years, so how come he decided to do this now?

Genuine question by the way.

[FGS5635]

Nice gesture...My only question is - Why now? The fund has been around for a number years, so how come he decided to do this now?

Genuine question by the way.

It was on the eve of the merseyside derby and the publicity it generated let everyone know the fund was still going

[allan]

With tax relief through Giftaid the donation will have cost about £50k. Or to put it another way, about 1% of his annual income. Generous??

[Stuart]

Depends Allan. Do you give 1% of your annual income to charity? How many people do?

Churlish to criticise someone for not giving enough money. He didn't have to give anything. Most don't.

[Baz]

Nice gesture...My only question is - Why now? The fund has been around for a number years, so how come he decided to do this now?

Genuine question by the way.

Totally agree, if he was so interested in this why wait so long. Why not do this 10-15 years ago when they really needed the money and the coverage.

[thenodrog]

It's his testimonial year. He's already donated some of the proceeds of his testimonial match to Alder Hay Childrens Hospital.

[jim mk2]

Web search shows Gerrard annual earnings of more than £7 million, which is about £600,000 a month or £150,000 a week.

Average national wage is £26,000 per annum, about £2,000 a month or £500 a week.

Thus (very roughly) his £96,000 donation is about 60 per cent of his weekly wage, or about £300 to normal folk.

Now £300 is alot of money to hardworking people struggling to pay bills so maybe (at least in percentage terms) his £96,000 is generous.

[Baz]

Cant fault the maths, can fault the logic.

Its nice of him, but in no way is it the equivalent of £300 for Joe Average.

[adopted scouser]

It's his testimonial year. He's already donated some of the proceeds of his testimonial match to Alder Hay Childrens Hospital.

What a bassttarrd eh ?

[Beta Ray Bill]

With tax relief through Giftaid the donation will have cost about £50k. Or to put it another way, about 1% of his annual income. Generous??

That's not how gift aid works for the donor, unless you're saying the £96k is the 'final' amount? More likely he donated £96k and the final amount is closer to £130k.

Not directed at you, but criticising anyone for any level of charitable donation - regardless of income - does seem quite bizarre.

[thenodrog]

What a bassttarrd eh ?

Nope. He's doing what a number of footballers do now by donating his testimonial money to worthy causes. Niall Quinn started it. No doubt Gerrard intends to stay in the Livvie area after he retires so it makes good sense..... especially if he wants an honour or two. 'Sir' StevieGee perhaps?

[cn174]

Been following David Conn on twitter, he's been at the Hillsborough inquest most of the time. Thought this was one of the most telling days, Duckenfield who was the man in charge of the game is part apologising part trying to excuse himself from what what happened. Some things are just awful, calling in police dog units instead of ambulances for example. I doubt much will happen to people who were responsible for people's safety during this game, and whilst I don't have any great affinity to Liverpool, at least the truth and the extent to which everything has been covered up for years is coming out.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/13/david-duckenfield-why-i-lied-about-hillsborough

[Baz]

Been following David Conn on twitter, he's been at the Hillsborough inquest most of the time. Thought this was one of the most telling days, Duckenfield who was the man in charge of the game is part apologising part trying to excuse himself from what what happened. Some things are just awful, calling in police dog units instead of ambulances for example. I doubt much will happen to people who were responsible for people's safety during this game, and whilst I don't have any great affinity to Liverpool, at least the truth and the extent to which everything has been covered up for years is coming out.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/13/david-duckenfield-why-i-lied-about-hillsborough

Great minds Claire, just posted the same stuff in ICBINF.

[ABBEY]

Will there be the same inquest into Heysel ?

[47er]

Ah.. Right.

Prob not the best time to point out that 135000 might be an even more 'significant' number.

I remember the last time we visited this topic several years ago Theno. You were the most vociferous in defending the police and the official version of that sad,sad day at Hillsborough and in dismissing any notion that the Liverpool fans were innocent victims of deceit, incompetance and cover-up on a massive scale.

Having reminded us when you get things right, I hope you are man enough to admit you got this one horribly wrong.

[AllRoverAsia]

Will there be the same inquest into Heysel ?

If you mean an inquest of the same depth or an inquest into an inquest into an inquest ad infinitum, then I think never.

Heysel and Hillsborough were however two totally separate incidents with one common denominator.

[thenodrog]

I remember the last time we visited this topic several years ago Theno. You were the most vociferous in defending the police and the official version of that sad,sad day at Hillsborough and in dismissing any notion that the Liverpool fans were innocent victims of deceit, incompetance and cover-up on a massive scale.

Having reminded us when you get things right, I hope you are man enough to admit you got this one horribly wrong.

No problem with that 47er. Sounds to me like Duckinfield created a disaster by attempting to prevent one. Tuirns out now that he got it wrong, I got it wrong, the Sun got it wrong. the Police got it wrong, and very many of the Liverpool fans who turned up bevvied up, and en masse at the last minute got it wrong too. That OK for you?

What I still believe and nothing will alter my view on this is that as usual the innocents suffered at the hands of those not quite so innocent. Obviously not politically expedient for anybody 'official' to bring that up is it? Not when there is a scapegoat all trussed up and exposed on the sacrificial altar.

Humans error all too frequently and thats why they put rubbers on pencils 47er.

To err is human, to forgive divine. Alexander Pope

btw... Abbey just beat me to it, how about covering the Heysel disaster and putting that to bed whilst everyone is on the case and laying blame is the order of the day and then we can maybe rule out the common denominator?

[den]

You couldn't resist the dig at the fans Theno.

The problem with the view that being drunk contributed to their deaths, is that many of those fans that died weren't drunk, but they still died. Being drunk had no bearing on their deaths. Drunk or sober, they died because the safety management on the day weren't capable of dealing with the situation. As for being late contributing that's ridiculous. They could have well been late and survived.

[thenodrog]

You couldn't resist the dig at the fans Theno.

The problem with the view that being drunk contributed to their deaths, is that many of those fans that died weren't drunk, but they still died. Being drunk had no bearing on their deaths. Drunk or sober, they died because the safety management on the day weren't capable of dealing with the situation. As for being late contributing that's ridiculous. They could have well been late and survived.

Not what I said at all den. The police opened the gates wrongly and that is now accepted but I don't rem any Police doing the pushing/ crushing from the back.

tbh we could have had problems at Ewood with letting City and Celtic fans run riot in the ground.

[den]

Not what I said at all den. The police opened the gates wrongly and that is now accepted but I don't rem any Police doing the pushing/ crushing from the back.

tbh we could have had problems at Ewood with letting City and Celtic fans run riot in the ground.

Well you did say that.

" and very many of the Liverpool fans who turned up bevvied up, and en masse at the last minute got it wrong too."

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Den,have you seen footage of the Liverpool fans arriving late outside the turnstiles?...the crush outside was so bad the decision was taken to open the gates to relieve this problem.

How else could the Police have handled this situation?

I cannot stand this blame culture for what was a series of seperate events that culminated in this tragedy.

[den]

A decision that cost 96 lives SG.

The deaths weren't inevitable. Better policing outside the ground, opening the gates onto the pitch, rather than pushing fans back into the pens and sending ambulances instead of dogs would all have saved lives.

I'll add this from the Taylor report:-

""From the documents provided to the panel it is clear the crush at the Leppings Lane turnstiles outside the stadium was not caused by fans arriving 'late' for the kick off," it concluded."

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Your right Den,the deaths weren't inevitable but I wouldn't like to point the finger of blame at anyone party.

It was a tragedy that will never be forgotten and hopefully never witnessed again.