Chapter 124: Press Conference Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the hearts of the reporters, the match was an interesting one with many ups and downs. However, the press conference held after the match was their real focus. The reporters were eager to hear from the managers of both teams regarding their opinions on the fans rioting which had occurred during the match.
Soon after the match ended, the reporters quickly ended their interviews at the mixed zone and assembled at the venue where the press conference would be held while waiting for the managers to come out.
Tang En was the first to come out, and the dejected person following behind him closely was Millwall's manager, Alan McLeary. According to the norms, the two managers should shake hands as a form of courtesy. However, Twain sat in his seat with both his hands in his pocket, and seemed to have no intentions of shaking hands with McLeary at all. McLeary stood on the stage dumbfounded for a split second, before proceeding to sit down on his own seat in a somewhat awkward fashion.
As soon as the host announced the commencement of the press conference, all of the reporters immediately raised their hands.
It was evident that the topic which the reporters cared about the most was not the shocking 7:1 score. Any score was possible on the football field, and a score of 7:1 was still within the boundaries of the Earth, and not that far-fetched as though it was on Mars. This match was full of publicity value and stunts. The story which would attract the public's attention happened on the viewing platform. The Millwall fans insulting songs as well as the rioting caused by both parties' fans were the topics of interest which the reporters asked questions about.
Faced with these questions, Tang En snatched the microphone first to answer. The earlier he finished whatever he had to say, the earlier he could leave this place and return to Nottingham. He did not have any intention of sitting with the guy beside him for too long.
"I understand that all of you are very eager to know about those things which happened on the viewing platforms, but I don't wish to mention it again. I suggest you ask the Millwall club chairman as well as Mr. Manager seated beside me instead. They should know best what kind of people their supporters are." This sentence directly caused Twain to make an enemy of all the Millwall people, but he did not care at all as he did not rely on getting in the good books of enemy fans to obtain victory. "I only want to say one point, that I am extremely pleased with my players' performance in the second half, and that they are every bit worthy of this match's victory."
A reporter seemed to have seen through Tang En's intention to leave soon, and hurriedly asked, "Excuse me Mr. Twain! Your team's performances in the first half and the second half are worlds apart. What did you say to them during the halftime break? Were there any special arrangements?"
Tang En stared at this reported and said, "I told my players that if they were furious at the Millwall fans' singing, then they should score goals to shut their mouths up. Every time they sang, we would score a goal. Every time they sang, we would score a goal. Until they don't dare to make a single noise. I am very happy that my players managed to accomplish this."
After that, Tang En paid no heed to the uproar caused by this statement and placed the microphone on the table, before taking his leave.
The host reminded him, "Sir, the press conference has not ended yet…"
"His press conference has not ended, not mine." Tang En pointed toward McLeary and said. "I have nothing more to say, Mr. Host. Everyone!" Tang En raised his voice at the reporters and said, "If you have any questions, you may ask Mr. Alan McLeary to your hearts' content!"
After which, he turned around and left.
The dejected McLeary mumbled behind Tang En's back, "I've never seen someone with such bad manners."
Tang En, who was in the midst of leaving, stopped because of this sentence. He turned around and looked at McLeary, giving off a look so fierce as though he wanted to gobble McLeary up. "Manners? Mr. Alan McLeary…" Tang En spoke slowly, articulating each and every word clearly. "There's something that I can be sure of, and it's the fact that my manners are definitely a few hundred million times much better than you and your supporters on the viewing platform!"
After finishing his sentence, Tony Twain completely ignored the reporters who shouted his name and left the small press conference room without even turning his head around.
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Nottingham Forest triumphed over Millwall with a score of 7:1 in their away match, successfully advancing into the semi-finals. However, there were few reports regarding this score. Instead, the rioting fans made the headlines of most English newspapers after the match.
The media was able to make the connection to the previous season's match between Nottingham Forest and Millwall, where the football hooligans' fight caused an innocent child's unfortunate death. Hence, they titled their newspaper articles as such: The return of football hooligans! The return of football violence!
A kind of suppressed excitement could be vividly seen in the papers.
Actually, this kind of attitude by the media could be explained by a catastrophe from 14 years before.
Ever since the Hillsborough incident, Lady Margaret Thatcher who had always been opposed to football as a sport, finally found an excuse to remediate this form of "violent sport." She tasked Lord Justice Taylor to carry out a detailed independent investigation targeted at the football environment in England at that time. As a result, two versions of "Taylor Report" were published over the span of six months.
In this famous report, Lord Justice Taylor proposed various suggestions for football as a sport, as well as suggestions pertaining the English society's attitudes toward the assumption of responsibility. However, the English government only adopted a few of the suggestions, such as the reconstruction of stadiums, changing all of the standing accommodations into all-seater models, and tearing down the fences.
The Sports Ground Safety Authorities was already established in 1973 by the English Government, and those sports stadiums which did not meet the safety requirements would not be issued safety certifications. However, the safety certification of Hillsborough Stadium, where the tragedy took place, had already expired for more than 10 years! According to the expired safety certification at Hillsborough Stadium, the third and fourth zones of the West viewing platforms could only hold up to 2,200 people. But in actual fact, its maximum holding capacity was less than 1,700 people. When the tragedy took place, there were more than 3,000 fans trying to squeeze into these two small zones, directly causing the tragedy with an overcrowded stampede.
Although speaking from a subjective point of view, Lady Margaret Thatcher's actions were all carried out in order to oppress football, a sport which she thoroughly detested. Objectively speaking, those action did revolutionize English football. Now, the spectators were able to sit on plastic seats and there were also specialized evacuation routes in the stadiums. The ability to watch football matches in refurbished football stadiums had to be credited to the Taylor Report and the Thatcher government.
The Taylor Report also built a solid foundation for the establishment of the English Premier League in terms of safety and hardware facilities. In 1992, the long-awaited English Premier League finally made its debut, momentarily drawing the attention of worldwide football fans with its captivating matches. Under the highly marketed and commercialized management, the English Premier League became increasingly captivating as the years went by. It looked like English football once again regained its former glory and even the blights like football hooliganism seemed to have disappeared from the top tier English leagues.
In reality, with regard to the issue of football hooliganism, the ones who should take responsibility and atone for those tragedies should not only be limited to the fans. The English government and the media should also shoulder some of the responsibilities.
In fact, perhaps 99 percent of the English football fan population was innocent. However, as long as the remaining one percent of football hooligans existed, the rest of the fans would be blamed as well. There was a 'blacklist' inside the English Police Headquarters Scotland Yard used specially for the recording of football hooligans' identities, and this list had been established since the times of the Thatcher Government. More than 10 years had passed since then, and they continued to abide strictly by Lady Thatcher's principles which she had once tactfully proposed—she'd rather get 3,000 people killed wrongfully, than to let one culprit off.
As a result, countless innocent fans were implicated as well. There were some fans with a proper occupation and no past records listed on the blacklist, banned from watching live football matches. The reason was simply because "they once entered the same stadium as the football hooligans", or that "they had drunk in the same bar as the football hooligans."
Of course, for the government to have treated the issue of football hooliganism so harshly, the media also played an integral role in adding fuel to the flames.
A representative example from English history was enough to explain the kind of role which the media played in aggravating the issue of football hooliganism.
The Liverpool fans staying in Merseyside would not forget their hatred toward The Sun for the rest of their lives, because this newspaper company, which had a considerable amount of influence in the country, had, in an attempt to attract attention and vie with The Daily Mirror for news resources, decided to make a selective compilation of reports to sensationalize the incident. As a result of their success in doing so, until now there were still many people who, as a result of the news reports at that time, believed that the Hillsborough incident was caused by the "notorious" Liverpool fans, and that they "deserved to die."
That headline of The Sun on that day was named "the most shameless headline of news history"—THE TRUTH!
The Sun's supposed truth was that the Liverpool fans died a deserving death, because it was precisely the drunk Liverpool fans' fighting which caused this tragedy. They vividly described to the readers everything that happened in the Hillsborough Stadium: those "scumbag" Liverpool fans took advantage of the chaos and snatched the purses of the deceased, clothes, watches… peed at the police who were trying to maintain order, hit the staff who were administering resuscitation to the injured, and even attempted to gang rape a deceased female fan!
They had originally designed the headlines for this news report to be "All of you are scumbags", before editing it to "THE TRUTH" right before publishing it. What an irony that was. What was the real truth?
As the Thatcher government determined football fans to be "internal enemies", it was not possible for the government to care about their enemies' safety or innocence. In fact, they even hoped that the media would collectively report the Hillsborough tragedy as a football hooligans' riot incident. That way was the only way that could beautifully show how far-sighted they were, and provide justification for their disgusted attitudes toward football as a sport. The fact that till now, Lady Thatcher's private consultant still felt that The Sun's perspective at that time was correct is the best proof for it.
The real truth only slowly surfaced years after the incident, but this sort of truth only existed among the people. After countless court trials, the English court ruled the Hillsborough as a "fortuitous incident", with the police not having to shoulder any responsibilities for this incident. The ironic thing was that all of the evidence which the court based its ruling off was provided by the police. After that, the English courts refused to reopen another court hearing in this matter, because according to the English laws, a private prosecutor had no rights to make an appeal.