Hillsborough legacy continues to echo

Twenty years after the Hillsborough disaster, English football is enjoying a golden age with multi-millionaire players starring in modern stadia, reaping the rewards of lucrative TV deals.

But in the aftermath of the disaster at the Sheffield ground in April 1989, that saw 96 Liverpool fans crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, things never looked so bleak.

The disaster occurred at an already miserable time for English football, with crumbling facilities and falling attendances symptomatic of a sport in decline.

English teams had been barred from European competition after rampaging Liverpool fans caused the deaths of 39 Juventus supporters at the 1985 European Cup final at Heysel and the ban thrust pariah status upon the home of football.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hillsborough tragedy, Lord Justice Taylor was commissioned to conduct an inquiry that would have a huge and far-reaching impact on the game.

Taylor was deeply critical of the police response at Hillsborough, but his most significant recommendations were the removal of perimeter fencing and the creation of all-seater stadia.

In 1993 London club Millwall became the first English side to construct a new all-seater ground and by the end of the decade non-terraced grounds had become the norm.

The steady emergence of modern, all-seater stadia coincided with growing interest in the game sparked by British Sky Broadcasting?s acquisition of the television rights for the newly re-branded English Premier League, which kicked off in 1992.

England’s run to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup had opened the sport up to new audiences, and when those fans tuned in to watch their national league, what they saw was an increasingly slick production.

The money that poured into the game through Sky allowed clubs to modernise and with glamorous foreign stars like Manchester United’s Eric Cantona and Chelsea’s Gianfranco Zola there followed increasingly exciting football.

“If you look at the organisation of football in England, and also in Scotland, it has all come out of the disaster in Sheffield at Hillsborough in 1989,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

“The decision was taken under the government that all team sports, not just football, will be played in all-seater stadiums and it was here that the success of the English Premier League started.”

Sky’s latest deal for the rights to the Premier League is reportedly worth a staggering one billion pounds and English football today enjoys vast wealth, massive global support and unprecedented success in European competition.

It may be scant consolation for the families and friends of the 96 who perished, but out of Hillsborough, English football was re-born.