Fifty-Six

Fifty-Six

Author: Martin Fletcher

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-04-16

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 147292018X

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 'Read his book and weep' - The Times 'Incredibly moving and brilliantly understated... lays bare the culture of institutionalised neglect that all English football-goers in the 80s came to expect, which by the end of the decade would claim more than 150 lives' - Mirror On May 11 1985, fifty-six people died in a devastating fire at Bradford City's old Valley Parade ground. It was truly horrific, a startling story – and wholly avoidable – but it had only the briefest of inquiries, and it seemed its lessons were not learned. Twelve-year-old Martin Fletcher was at Valley Parade that day, celebrating Bradford's promotion to the second flight, with his dad, brother, uncle and grandfather. Martin was the only one of them to survive the fire – the biggest loss suffered by a single family in any British football disaster. In later years, Martin devoted himself to extensively investigating how the disaster was caused, its culture of institutional neglect and the government's general indifference towards football fans' safety at the time. This book tells the gripping, extraordinary in-depth story of a boy's unthinkable loss following a spring afternoon at a football match, of how fifty-six people could die at a game, and of the truths he unearthed as an adult. This is the story – thirty years on – of the disaster football has never properly acknowledged.


Football Nation

Football Nation

Author: Andrew Ward

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2009-08-03

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 1408803526

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Football is at the heart of British national identity, intrinsically linked to our social history. Through more than forty fascinating stories Football Nation reveals the hidden and not-so-hidden history of the game since 1945. From the mass audiences of austerity Britain and the introduction of floodlights at Accrington Stanley in the 1950s, through the escalating hooliganism of the 1970s and the arrival of the first all-seater stadium at Coventry in the 1980s, to the Hillsborough disaster and the coming of the Premiership, Andrew Ward and John Williams reveal the truth about the national game as it was once and is today in the age of satellite TV, celebrity lifestyle and extreme wealth. Looking back at the days when footballers were amateurs who travelled to the match with the fans, right through to the present day where top-flight players command a higher weekly wage than the average spectator can earn in a year, Football Nation is informed, wryly amusing, often surprising and always vastly entertaining. It offers an entirely fresh perspective on the history of the beautiful game in Britain.


44 Years With The Same Bird

44 Years With The Same Bird

Author: Brian Reade

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2011-01-14

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0330540424

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There have been football books which have told their tale through the partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that have dissected their subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer. But rarely does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold eye of an award-winning journalist in the way 44 Years With The Same Bird does. That bird is the Liver Bird, and on the surface this book is a pitch-side view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful football club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching them en route to their first ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through to the Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007. It takes in all of the big nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, twelve titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter failures, the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well as the barren years of the late 60s and the 90s. But the book goes far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed a father who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep believing in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get too close to your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a football match (Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck, unwilling to carry on, but how witnessing a miracle on a football pitch (Istanbul) makes you realize that no matter how low you sink, you should never give in.


There She Goes

There She Goes

Author: Simon Hughes

Publisher: deCoubertin Books

Published: 2019-09-26

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1909245917

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Liverpool was once one of the greatest cities in the British empire but it no longer feels like it is in England, if it ever did. It had retreated as a significant port after the Second World War and by 1979, it was already on the brink. What it needed was support but instead, a Conservative Party with aggressive new ideas allowed it to slide. Thirty-years after the Toxteth Riots, classified government papers revealed that the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was urged to abandon the city and embark on a programme of 'managed decline'. Why did Liverpool's fortunes change so dramatically? Why did it fight back when other cities did not? This is the untold story of what it was like for Liverpool's people and how the period defines who they are.


The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel

The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel

Author: Hillsborough Independent Panel

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-09-12

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780102980356

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96 women, men and children died as a result of the disaster in Hillsborough Stadium on 15 April 1989. They were crushed due to overcrowding in the Leppings Lane terrace, penned in by the ground's fencing. Hundreds more were injured and thousands traumatised. Lord Justice Taylor led a judicial inquiry (1990, Cm. 962, ISBN 9780101096225), concluding that the main cause of the disaster was the failure of police control. The next 11 years saw a variety of investigations and proceedings, including a scrutiny of new evidence (Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, 1998, Cm. 3878, ISBN 9780101387828). Yet many bereaved families felt that the true context, circumstances and aftermath had not been adequately made public, and were particularly aggrieved that it had become widely assumed that Liverpool fans' behaviour had contributed to the disaster. The Independent Panel was established in 2010 to oversee full public disclosure of all documents relating to the disaster and to report on its work. This report is in three parts. Firstly it shows what was already known and in the public domain by 2010. Secondly, in 12 detailed chapters, it describes what the disclosed documents add to public understanding. The third part gives a review of options for providing an archive of the documents. The disclosed documents (available at http://panel.hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/) add considerably to public understanding. They show that multiple factors were responsible for the tragedy and that the fans were not the cause. The report also shows that the bereaved families met a series of obstacles in their search for justice over more than 20 years.


Boys from the Mersey

Boys from the Mersey

Author: Nicholas Allt

Publisher:

Published: 2005-03-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9781903854396

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Nicky Allt was a penniless teenager from the tough Kirkby district of Liverpool who wanted something more, when noone would employ him. In the late seventies that meant clothes, music and Liverpool FC. He joined a young scallywag crew who dressed different, spoke different and met at the Anfield Road End. Their travels would become legend as the Reds conquered Europe. The Road Enders were a bunch of blaggers and fighters to whom every No Entry sign was a challenge and every price tag a joke. They criss-crossed the continent, causing havoc in their wake - and had a whale of a time.


The Hillsborough Disaster

The Hillsborough Disaster

Author: Mike Nicholson

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2016-05-23

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1445635070

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An examination of the Hillsborough disaster, drawing on eyewitness accounts and interviews with those who were there and those most affected.


Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch

Author: Nick Hornby

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2005-05-05

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0141926546

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*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR* Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic 'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. Brimming with wit and honesty, Fever Pitch, catches perfectly what it really means to be a football fan - and in doing so, what it means to be a man. 'Hornby has put his finger on truths that have been unspoken for generations' Irish Times 'Funny, wise and true' Roddy Doyle