Liverpool’s press mess

The comedian Jimmy Carr is not necessarily a guy you would trust on much, but he was spot on the other day when he said that the Hillsborough disaster was something you would never joke about. Of course not, but it seems you can’t have even a sliver of a divergent view. Now, thanks to the timorousness of one of the world’s major football clubs, and the pusillanimity of the Premier League, a bitter little drama is being played out that could have savage implications for freedom of the press.

Early in February this year Liverpool FC announced that the Sun would be banned from all home facilities, Anfield and the club’s Melwood training ground; the paper would not be allowed into home games and its Liverpool reporter would be given no access to players or the manager. This was a result of the newspaper’s notorious coverage of the aftermath of the disaster, nearly 28 years ago, when it carried damaging and false allegations about the behaviour of Liverpool fans — coverage for which the paper and its editors have repeatedly apologised.

It is hard to establish where the decision came from in the senior Liverpool hierarchy, but I understand that the club’s owner, John Henry, founder of the Boston-based Fenway Sports Group, was not involved. He is said to be ‘embarrassed’, as well he might be since Fenway also owns the Boston Globe, which makes hay whenever President Trump tries a similar stunt.

At the root of the latest ban is a group calling itself ‘Total Eclipse of the S*n’. It claims to have more than 30,000 supporters but my guess is that represents clicks on its social media page. They are separate from the families of the 96 Hillsborough victims — a disparate group, both in where they live and in their long-term aims.