Liverpool fans at Hillsborough killed themselves after retriggering CL final
Two Liverpool fans who survived the Hillsborough disaster killed themselves after being 'retriggered' by the distressing events of this year’s Champions League Final in Paris.
While Jurgen Klopp’s side were defeated by Real Madrid, the night is remembered most for its chaotic and dangerous organisation, which saw officials close the turnstiles, entrapping Liverpool fans in cramped conditions outside the Stade de France, before supporters were teargassed and attacked by French police. While kick-off was pushed back by 30 minutes to give fans extra time to get into the stadium, UEFA officials were condemned for releasing a message blaming supporters for the delay.
A report carried out by French officials alleviated the responsibility of Liverpool fans, stating they were “unfairly” blamed for the scenes outside the French national stadium. Many supporters, including the likes of Liverpool legend Alan Kennedy, said they feared for their lives. And the terrifying events before Europe’s showpiece match caused two supporters to take their own life, according to Peter Scarfe of the Hillsborough Survivors Support group.
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"This year alone, we’ve had three suicides. That’s three too many,” Scarfe said at the Hillsborough Law Now event, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
"One was just before the anniversary because he didn’t want to face another anniversary, two of them were retriggers from Stade de France." Scarfe added. “We’ve had to put people through therapy from the Stade de France, we led it and the LFC Foundation funded it, which is fantastic because we don’t have that kind of money to keep paying for more and more people, from other preventable tragedies. We shouldn’t be doing this, it shouldn’t be happening."
Ninety seven football fans lost their lives as a result of the horrific tragedy at Hillsborough in the 1989 FA Cup semi-final. Last year, the victim count increased from 96 to 97, after Liverpool fan Andrew Devine died in July 2021 as a result of life-changing injuries he sustained all those years ago. A jury at inquests in April 2016 found the supporters were unlawfully killed amid a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services, with fans in no way contributing to the disaster.
The panic and confusion at the Stade de France prompted an official investigation from the French government. Initially, French minister Gerald Darmanin laid the blame at the door of Liverpool fans, falsely claiming tens of thousands of supporters tried to get in without a ticket or by using fake ones.
The results of a French Senate investigation contradicted those of Darmanin, instead attributing the blame to organisational errors and failings, rather than supporter behaviour. Nevertheless, the investigation did not stop the tidal wave of abuse that came the way of many Hillsborough survivors and campaigners.
“The problem with social media – as it has just been spoken about before,” Scarfe added. “We have to deal with this ourselves, we have to deal with being retraumatised by some of the hate tweets that are out there."
"What these people are going through – the hate comments that are being made to the likes of Charlotte (Hennessy, who lost her dad Jimmy at Hillsborough when she was just six years old) and other family members and Hillsborough survivors, it’s beyond a joke.
”It’s retriggering people, it’s retraumatizing and people are taking their own lives. There are three people that we know about (that have committed suicide this year), there are probably many more.
“Since I started working on it with HSA, we have saved people’s lives. We’ve saved people from trying to take their own lives, we’ve put people through therapy to prevent people taking their own lives and we’re still picking up the pieces."
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