The Passionate Heavenly Salute Of Liverpool F.C
Love and care is the backbone of the Liverpool football family and this is more important than the vast amount of silverware that this great English club hold
Liverpool FC.
Without a doubt, they have the most passionate players and fans in English football.
But how can you measure this?
For me it’s simple.
Passion is all about how much you care for something and how much love you show to it.
And the Liverpool fans know what this is all about. They’ve shown this throughout my life in abundance.
Yet, for the majority of it, they haven’t been as successful as they have been in their illustrious past.
Still considered one of the greatest football clubs in the world, Liverpool players and supporters showed their passion the most off the field rather than on it. Sure, they have been passionate with one another when they score goals and hug one another but many players do that too. And the supporters have kissed each other when they won too.
But Liverpool’s passion goes deeper than celebrating victories.
Because Livepool have not only known defeats but many deaths also.
And that’s when they showed the most passion to one another.
On April 15th, 1989 Liverpool was to play the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forrest. The game was to be played in Hillborough stadium which was the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday. The day began like most others for the fans of Liverpool as they journeyed towards the ground and entered the stadium.
At the same time, the Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest players were getting prepared to battle it out for a place in the FA Cup final against Liverpool’s neighbors Everton.
By the time most supporters of both sides had packed into the stadium the game started as most games do. For the first 6 minutes of the game, it seemed like a normal football game until suddenly it was clear that things were going drastically wrong.
At the Leppings lane end of the stadium, there was a scene of chaos occurring as the crowd was showing aggravation and it forced the referee to stop the game.
Soon after the police attempted to step in to see what was happening and immediately discovered that there was thousands of football supporters crammed into that end of the stadium and in agony as they all competed for room to breathe.
And that competition turned into a loss for tens of supporters there.
In all 96 supporters got squashed to death in the first few minutes of that game and a dark day for football had arrived.
I was 8 years of age and decades later can still remember it like it was yesterday.
At home in Ireland, I had sat to watch the game on BBC which was struggling to receive reception on our makeshift aerial. As it flickered in and out of reception all we could see was supporters panicking and running onto the football field as policemen hurried to one end of the stadium to assist in helping those injured.
It was pure anarchy.
My cousin had called to our house that day which was a rare event in itself. He was a couple of years older than me and someone I looked up to. Just before the game started we were out on our bikes and cycling around and doing the things young boys do together.
By the time we arrived in the living room to watch the game, our fun smiles had turned into shock.
I`ll never forget looking at my cousin’s face as he stared at the scenes of despair on the TV screen.
From then I began to realize the seriousness of the situation.
Within hours when it was confirmed how many had lost their lives and the true passion of the Liverpool football club was unfolding.
The Liverpool manager at the time was club legend, Kenny Dalglish. He loved the club dearly and had become one of its greatest players in previous decades. At that time he was turning his success on the field into being a great manager.
Dalglish’s actions in the weeks after the tragedy were unique.
But it wasn’t until years later that I discovered that Kenny showed passionate care for his fans by attending all 96 funerals of the departed supporters from that tragic day. And many of his players did their bit too as they went to many of the funerals to show their solidarity and support in that tragic time.
But the true passion for the bereaved and their families was only starting in 1989.
And it would continue for decades more.
Because the club supported the victims who had passed away and continued to assist them in their attempts to clear their good names as they believed they were innocent of any wrongdoing that led to their untimely passing on that horrible day. And they did it because they were passionate about those that supported them.
Twenty-seven years later not long after the anniversary of that fateful FA cup semi-final a jury of six women and three men legally found that the Hillborough disaster came as a result of police and ambulance service failings. And the families and friends of the bereaved attempts to clear the names of the bereaved and removing them from any wrongdoing were proven.
And within a couple of years, Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions for the first time in their history.
It seemed like a fitting end to the tragedy and a time for all to show their positive passion after all the decades they had endured together.
But that’s Liverpool football club. A club of the people and one that shows true passion to its supporters in good times and bad.
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