CHAPTER 17
THE FA's CHOICE OF GROUND
269. The FA were strongly criticised by the Football Supporters' Association and others for having imposed the Hillsborough venue on Liverpool for a second year running. The Liverpool supporters had to travel much further to Sheffield than their Nottingham rivals. The police required that if the match was to be at Hillsborough at all, Liverpool would have to have the west and north side accommodation. The disadvantages of that and the disparate numbers of home supporters of the two clubs have already been set out. Liverpool had had to knuckle under to the arrangement in 1988. They resented having it imposed in 1989. To hold the match at Old Trafford would have been a perfectly good and acceptable alternative. Indeed, the FA nominated Old Trafford as the venue for the replay should there be a draw at Hillsborough.
270. Mr Kelly, the FA's Chief Executive, sought to give reasons for preferring Hillsborough, but the only one which seemed to have any validity was that the 1988 match had been considered a successfully managed event. He admitted that a telephone call from the Chief Executive of the Liverpool Club protesting and putting Liverpool's case had not been mentioned to the FA committee which finally decided the venue. Mr Kelly frankly conceded that "there was an element of unfairness" to Liverpool in choosing Hillsborough for a second time. I think the decision was ill-considered. No doubt in future the FA will be more sensitive and responsive to reasonable representations.
271. However, it was not suggested that the choice of venue was causative of this disaster. The only basis on which that could be said would be that, because of its layout, the Leppings Lane end was incapable of being successfully policed for this semi-final. I do not believe that to be so.
