A weekly newspaper has apologised unreservedly after publishing a front page story which appeared to link the Hillsborough disaster to hooliganism.
The Reading Chronicle splashed with a report this week headlined “The Other Face of Football” looking at recent crowd trouble at Reading FC.
It contained a line which read: “”Football hooliganism may be thought of as a relic from a previous age when gangs of denim-clad skinheads held the game to ransom and names like Hillsborough and Heysel were symbols of its ills.”
Hillsborough campaigners reacted with outrage and the Liverpool Echo, which has fought a 25-year campaign on behalf of the victims, demanded an explanation from the paper.
In a statement published on its website this afternoon, the Chronicle’s publishers issued an unreserved apology.
It read: “Berkshire Media Group, publishers of the Reading Chronicle wish to apologise unreservedly for appearing to link football hooliganism with the Hillsborough tragedy on our front page of this week’s issue.
“It was never our intention to do so and we fully accept that hooliganism played no part in the tragic events of 15th April 1989.
The statement was signed by Keith McIntyre, managing director of the Berkshire Media Group which is itself part of the Dunfermline-based Romanes Media Group.
Earlier Margaret Aspinall, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, whose son James, 18, died in the disaster, said she was angered by the report.
She told the Echo: “It is an absolute disgrace because Hillsborough had nothing to do with hooliganism whatsoever.”
Sheila Coleman, from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC), called for action to be taken against the Reading Chronicle.
Ms Coleman said: “At a time when we are effectively being gagged from commenting on issues around Hillsborough and we’re closely following the coroner’s rules, it is appalling that an irresponsible press can choose to repeat the lies of Hillsborough that were put to bed a long time ago. There has got to be some recourse to this.”
In a statement to the Echo which was also sent to HTFP, Chronicle editor Maurice O’Brien said he appreciated why people were angry and that the newspaper had not intended to make such a link.
He said: “All the individual facts in our report were taken from official police records. There was no intention, deliberate or otherwise, to link Hillsborough with hooliganism.
“The point we were making is that, at the time everyone came to their senses and decided football had to clean up its act, names like Hillsborough and Heysel were synonymous with the game’s problems.
“We are fully aware that Hillsborough had nothing to do with hooliganism and I am profoundly sorry if anyone has been led to believe we would think otherwise.”
However as a result of the article, which was accompanied by an image of a Reading fan brandishing a stick, the Chronicle has also been banned from Reading FC’s ground by its chairman, Sir John Madejski.
In an open letter to fans, he accused the paper of “gross misrepresentation” and said the comment relating to Hillsborough had “deeply offended many of us in the football family.”
Sir John said: “In my opinion the nature of the article, and in particular the image manufactured for the front page, completely misrepresents the vast majority of our fans, and their experiences supporting the team both at Madejski Stadium and on the road.
“To paint a full picture, last season there was only one Reading fan arrested at Madejski Stadium, and only ten arrests out of nearly half a million home and away fans through the turnstiles, all for minor offences. Those Home Office figures speak for themselves.
“I have spent more than a quarter of my life building up this football club on and off the pitch, so I personally take a series of gross misrepresentations in this edition as insults to our club’s good name.
“With all that in mind, we have decided to suspend our relationship with this particular publication. This is not a decision we take lightly because we value the freedom of the press and have enjoyed excellent relationships with our local media in the past, but we are sure our supporters will agree that we cannot allow the fans’ good name to be besmirched in this way.”
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Hillsborough only became synonymous with hooliganism because of ill-informed comments like this one, or the lies peddled by people who we’re looking to protect themselves.
The retraction from Mr O’Brien seems to justify repeating these claims in an effort to justify the link.
On another point – did no one at the newspaper question this? It’s hardly as if Hillsborough has been out of the news for years.
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Well that worked out well then.
An over the top and sensationalist story upsets thousands of football fans and sees the paper banned from their local club.
Well done everyone.
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Another example of clueless news reporters getting a sportsdesk into bother. The bread and butter sports reporters at Reading Chronicle will have had nothing to do with this story, I’d wager.
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Reading football fans vote with your pocket. Do NOT buy the Chronical.
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The Hillsborough error is poor writing and understanding, simple as that.
What’s just as bad is the wilful mis-interpretation of police information to fabricate a story out of very little. Has anyone at the newspaper actually been to a Championship (or football league) game in recent years? You really do have to cause trouble yourself or work hard to seek it out. Hence them having to pose a model for the front cover.
Fine yes, the incidents themselves collectively make a decent story – but not inflated to bursting point as they have been.
This kind of badly written, inaccurate tosh is offensive to the local community the Chronicle should be serving.
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Voice of Reason – exactly. Maybe if newsdesk has spoken with sportsdesk there may have been some decent context injected into this.
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Sorry, I know this is unfashionable to say so but Hillsborough does have a link to hooliganism. Going to football matches at that time was terrible – with Liverpool FC’s fans among the worst culprits – and the police attitude to fans, how stadiums were modified (perimeter fencing) etc was because of that.
By saying this, it does not then automatically mean I am saying the fans who lost their lives were hooligans. In fact, they were the polar opposite – they got to the match early, were not p*^sed or baying for a punch up – they were genuine fans out to enjoy what is one of the marque days of the English football season. It was a tragedy what happened – and can still vividly picture the TV reports of the unfolding disaster – and a scandal what has happened since, but please let’s not re-write history, because if we allow that, there is a danger that we could repeat it.
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A solid gold omni-shambles of a “story”.
Alienating the local football club, infuriating its fans, crow-barring the Hillsborough disaster victims and their families into it, dragging the newspaper’s name through the mud and topping it all off with an unreserved apology from the MD.
A fine day’s work.
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Bluestringer – it’s far from an ‘unreserved’ apology, it’s a weasly set of words that doesn’t fit with the facts.
The image faked by the paper is an utter disgrace
The police have stated that the paper have misrepresented and distorted ‘facts’ to fit their position.
The Chronicle used to be a reputable paper in Reading, sadly I suspect this may be it’s death knell.
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LogicalCaptain.
There is a link – football hooligans went to football matches, and Hillsborough is a football ground…. but there it stops.
Yes, Hillsborough wouldn’t have happened if football fans weren’t herded in like cattle after hooliganism erupted in the 80s. Perhaps ask why they were?
Or better – watch Robert Carlyle’s portrayal of a Liverpool fan in Cracker and then answer the questions he asked.
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For crying out load! Yes the paper were stupid, yes they made a mistake, yes a public apology in the paper should be made.
However, have you all forgotten that for hundreds of years this paper has been in support of it’s local community and has helped to raise thousands of pounds for local chairties and continue to do so. I work for a Reading charity and will continue to support the Reading Chronicle.
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As a former sports ed/chief sub, to me this is truly abhorrent of the Chronicle on two fronts. 1 The Hillsborough reference in the intro beggars belief. 2 The mocked up front page is a disgrace and an insult to all Reading fans, many of whom have told me they will never buy the publication again.
How many times have we seen stories here of the local paper being banned from the local club’s ground for some petty reason? In this instance Sir John/Reading FC has every right and reason to wash their hands of the Chronicle for a very long time, or until some meaningful recourse is offered.
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20 years ago, this paper was selling 30,000. Latest ABCs show it’s struggling with 5,981. That’s a heck of a decline.
Sales will be even lower once the dust has settled from this debacle.
Shoddy reporting, non-apologies, deleting critical comments from Facebook page … yep, it’s an utter disgrace.
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was it the news team or sports team that wrote the words.
were the sports team involved with the mocked up picture?
Reading FC banning the paper’s sports team is simply wrong if it was the news team’s content – unlike David Cameron, we are all not ‘in it together’ – yes, its’s one newspaper, but separate departments.
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@ Old Hack: Do you really think readers see it like that: ‘Ah yes that was someone on the news desk that posed as a Reading FC hooligan and insulted the entire club. I’ll forgive them’. The Chronicle brand in in the gutter and that is every department I am afraid because of this folly.
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