125 Press Conference Part 2 (1/2)
Chapter 125: Press Conference Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In English, ”justice” can refer to the quality of being fair and reasonable, or the judge of a country's Supreme Court. The judge who represents justice had ironically personally closed the door to justice for the family members of the deceased.
And the souls of the 96 Liverpool fans shall never get the chance for their grievances to be redressed. Until now, they had been labelled as ”football hooligans”, hovering in between Heaven and Hell. They are unable to enter the gates of Heaven, but they are also unwilling to enter Hell and be tortured.
Later, the furious Scousers launched boycott activities against The Sun, and those activities were still going on. It was not unusual to see Liverpool fans raising posters high up in the air, with the following words written beneath a bloodied The Sun logo:
The truth is that 96 people died in the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy! For the deceased, don't buy The Sun's newspapers!
Until now, The Sun newspapers' circulation in Liverpool remained at a meagre 10,000 copies, which was 200,000 copies less compared to before the Hillsborough tragedy took place.
To the powerless Liverpool fans, this was their only means of fighting back given that they were not even able to obtain support from the law. However, this means of fighting back remained powerless and insignificant in the face of the watchful eyes of the police, judges, lawyers, and English government.
After understanding that background, one would be able to understand why the media paid so much more attention to the viewing platforms instead of the field.
Ever since Thatcher's indiscriminate, ironfisted policies, football hooliganism appeared to have left the masses' fields of vision. The media reported mostly about the tabloids of football stars and managers, but the match from yesterday caused the paparazzi all over England to become excited once again.
Yes, football hooligans were back! Football violence was back! The thing that allowed us to draw the attention of the masses was back!
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With a whooshing sound, Tang En threw the newspapers in his hands out. He had originally thought that things would end just like that, and let the past remain as the past. He did not expect that…
After experiencing the Hillsborough tragedy, the English media displayed much more restraint. This time, most of them felt that the Millwall fans were the ones at fault. At first, a group of extremist Millwall fans began singing mocking songs about the deceased young football fan, Gavin Bernard, who had died as a result of a fight that broke out between football fans. Then, the song began to spread and raise discontentment amongst the Nottingham Forest fans, which caused the clash during the match.
Fundamentally, Tang En felt that this was still considered a just report from an objective point of view, as it did not label the Forest fans that were forced to retaliate as ”football hooligans.”
However, Millwall FC Chairman's words made Tang En extremely furious.
”…I am enraged by those who say that the Nottingham fans only clashed with the police after being provoked by our fans. I witnessed with my eyes that the Nottingham fans were the ones who incited the fight this time. They tried to rush on the field and threw the plastic seats, which they tore off, onto the field…” This was what Millwall FC Chairman Theo Paphitis said when he was interviewed by the reporters.
”I was directing the match at the time, and could not possibly notice what happened on the viewing platforms. No coach would focus his attention on something unrelated to the match. However, I heard about the incident afterwards, and I feel that this incident was not caused by the Millwall fans, but instead by a group of ruffians from Nottingham! Therefore, the ones who should shoulder the responsibility should be them and not us!” This was what Millwall FC Manager Alan McLeary said in an interview with a reporter from The Sun.
The riot which took place this time at New Den Stadium resulted in 13 people injured. Five Millwall and two Nottingham fans were arrested by the police. In addition, a total of 88 seats sustained damages of varying degrees, and there were several policemen who suffered light injuries as well. It was considered one of the largest-scale fan riots to take place in an English stadium in recent years. The largest-scale fan riot that took place outside of the stadium would have to be the riot which took place on the 7th of June in the previous year, when the Millwall fans rioted after Millwall FC was defeated in the playoffs.
For the Millwall chairman and manager to say something like this with various media paying close attention to the incident, it was no different from trying to shift the blame to Nottingham Forest.
Tang En personally already disliked Millwall as a club, and his hatred for it only grew after this incident.
He decided to break the silence and give those shameless people a sound slap on their cheeks.
Therefore, he took a piece of paper and decided to write an open letter before tasking it to Pierce Brosnan to help him publish it in the newspapers. The feeling of having to suppress one's words inside the heart was too unbearable. Luckily, he had a reporter friend who he was on relatively good terms with.
Just as Tang En finished writing the first word, he received a call from Doughty.
”Tony, can you come to City Ground Stadium?”
”What's the matter? I'm currently…” Tang En looked at the open letter, which he had only begun to write, and was about to ask if it was something urgent. If it wasn't, then he would decline.
”Regarding the fans rioting incident which took place yesterday, I intend to hold a press conference under the name of the club. Come… I know you must want to scold that bunch of b*stards. Now, I'm giving you a chance to scold them in front of the whole of England!” Doughty said fiercely.