Gerrard makes Hillsborough disaster appeal to UEFA

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard on Sunday appealed to UEFA to make sure the club do not have to play on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

The club has asked European football’s governing body not to schedule its Champions League quarter-final, second leg for Wednesday, April 15.

The date will mark 20 years since 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield which was hosting the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

Gerrard, who lost a cousin at Hillsborough, told the club’s website: “We hope that UEFA show some common sense. You would think they would accept the significance of the date for the people of Liverpool, but unfortunately feelings like that don’t always come into it.

“We’re still waiting to see whether UEFA will make us play on the day. That would be far from ideal given all the emotion that always surrounds the club on that day. It should be a time that Liverpool Football Club remembers the people who were lost and their families.

“Hillsborough is always on my mind because I lost a member of my family there and any success we get as a club this year will be dedicated to those people who lost their lives.”