Skip to main content

Justice for the 96? Hillsborough, Politics and English Football

  • Chapter
Book cover Football Hooliganism, Fan Behaviour and Crime

Abstract

Let me begin with a brief but in the circumstances, I think, highly relevant biographical note by way of introduction. I am, unusually in my experience, a ‘fan scholar’: a sports sociologist but also an active football club supporter. It turns out we are a surprisingly rare breed. More specifically, I have been an active Liverpool fan for more than 40 years and a season ticket holder since August 1994, the moment when the club’s Anfìeld stadium was eventually made all-seater, following rec- ommendations made in the Taylor Report (1990) after the Hillsborough stadium disaster of 1989. At that point a spate of new season tickets was made available to loyal, but irregular, Liverpool fans. Naturally, I bought one.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Allt, N. (2004) The Boys from the Mersey: The Story of the Annie Road Crew. Preston: Milo Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bebber, B. (2012) Violence and Racism in Football: Politics and Cultural Conflict in British Society, 1968–1998. London: Pickering and Chatto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, M. (2008) ‘Mourning and Loss: Finding Meaning in the Mourning for Hillsborough’, Mortality, 13(1): 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, J. (2011) Barca: A People’s Passion. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coffey, A. (1999) The Ethnographic Self: Fieldwork and the Representation of Identity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, T. and Vamplew, W. (2002) Mud, Sweat and Beers: A Cultural History of Sport and Alcohol. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duke, V. (2002) ‘Local Tradition versus Globalization: Resistance to the McDonaldisation and Disneyisation of Professional Football in England’, Football Studies, 5(1): 5–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edge, A. (1999) Faith of Our Fathers: Football as Religion. Edinburgh: Mainstream Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, D. and McGuinness, M. (2002) ‘Public Inquiry: Panacea or Placebo?’, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 10(1): 14–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, D. and Smith, D. (1993) ‘Football Stadia Disasters in the United Kingdom: Learning from Tragedy?’, Industrial and Environmental Crisis Quarterly, 7(3): 205–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faned, G. (2008) Long Distance Love: A Passion for Football. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeley, M. and Simon, J. (1992) ‘The New Penology: Notes on the Emerging Strategy of Conections and its Implications’, Criminology, 30: 449–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenell, J. (1997) ‘Criminological Verstehen: Inside the Immediacy of Crime’, Justice Quarterly, 14(1): 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foot, J. (2006) Calcio: A History of Italian Football. London: Fourth Estate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, O. and Carter, H. (2009) ‘Hillsborough: 20 Years, Liverpool Has Still Not Forgiven the Newspaper It Calls “The Scum” ’, The Guardian, 18 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giulianotti, R. (1999) Football: A Sociology of the Global Game. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbert, I. (2012) ‘The Book that Foretold Truth of Hillsborough’, The Independent, 22 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillsborough Panel (2012) Hillsborough: The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. London: The Stationery Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooton, P. (2007) ‘Paris, 1981’, in N. Allt, T. Banett, J. Dodd, P. Hooton, D. Kirby J. Maguire, K. Sampson (Eds.) Here We Go Gathering Cups in May, Edinburgh: Canongate, pp. 101–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnes, M. (2004)’ “Heads in the Sand”: Football, Politics and Crowd Disasters in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Soccer and Society, 5(2): 134–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, D. (2011) ‘Red and Blue, Orange and Green’, Soccer and Society, 12(4): 552–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, T. (1985) ‘The Blues and the Reds: A History of the Liverpool and Everton Football Clubs’, History Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 134: 17–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, R. (2000) ‘Contestation in Modern English Professional Football’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 35(4): 465–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandvoss, C. (2003) A Game of Two Halves: Football Fandom, TV and Globalization. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scraton, P. (1999) Hillsborough: The Truth. Edinburgh & London: Mainstream Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scraton, P. (2004) ‘Death on the Terraces: The Contexts and Injustices of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster’, Soccer and Society, 5(2): 183–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scraton, P., Jemphrey, A. and Coleman, S. (1995) No Last Rights: The Denial of Justice and the Promotion of Myth in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster. Liverpool: Liverpool City Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seabrook, J. (1989) ‘We Were Caged like Animals in a Zoo’, The Guardian, 17 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugden, J. (2007) ‘Inside the Grafter’s Game: An Ethnographic Examination of Football’s Underground Economy’, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 31(3): 242–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, I. (1989) ‘English Football in the 1990s: Taking Hillsborough Seriously’, in J. Williams and S. Wagg (Eds.) British Football and Social Change: Getting into Europe, Leicester: Leicester University Press, 3–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. (1989) The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster IS April 1989: Interim Report. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. (1990) The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster 15 April 1989: Final Report. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, I. (1991) ‘Hillsborough, 15 April 1989: Some Personal Contemplations’, New Left Review, 177: 89–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (1989) ‘C’mon Lads, We’ll Get in’, New Statesman, 21 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2001a) ‘Kopies, Scallies and Liverpool Fan Cultures: Tales of Triumphs and Disasters’, in J. Williams, S. Hopkins and C. Long (Eds.) Passing Rhythms: Liverpool FC and the Transformation of Football, Oxford: Berg, pp. 99–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2001b) ‘The Costs of Safety in Risk Societies’, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 12(1): 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2006)’ “Protect Me from What I Want”: Football Fandom, Celebrity Cultures and “New” Football in England’, Soccer and Society, 7(1): 96–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2010) Red Men: Liverpool Football Club, the Biography. Edinburgh: Mainstream Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2012) ‘The Liverpool Way, the Matchless Kop and the Anny Road Boys: Notes on the Contradictions in Liverpool Football Supporter Radicalism’, in J. Belcham and B. Biggs (Eds.) Liverpool, City of Radicals, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 123–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. and Hopkins, S. (2011) Over Here: “Americanization” and the New Politics of Football Club Ownership — The Case of Liverpool FC, Sport in Society, 14(2): 160–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. and Llopis, R. (2007) Rafa: Liverpool FC, Benitez and the New Spanish Fury. Edinburgh: Mainstream Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2014 John Williams

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Williams, J. (2014). Justice for the 96? Hillsborough, Politics and English Football. In: Hopkins, M., Treadwell, J. (eds) Football Hooliganism, Fan Behaviour and Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347978_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics