Thatcher: No Silence At Football Matches

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Reporter

Baroness Thatcher will not be formally remembered at football matches this weekend despite calls from some club chairmen and former footballers.

Following her death on Monday, Reading chairman John Madejski and Wigan Athletic boss Dave Whelan suggested that a minute's silence should be held at games as a mark of respect.

Sir Bobby Charlton also joined calls for a formal remembrance in her honour.

But the Premier League, Football League and Football Association have decided not to, with the FA stating they are an "apolitical organisation" and it is not their policy to honour political figures.

Sir Bobby Charlton wants Lady Thatcher to be honoured at weekend fixtures

It comes as many continue to debate the legacy Margaret Thatcher left on the national game.

Her time in power is well known as a dark decade for football, with hooligans intent on causing trouble at home and abroad.

In May 1985 riots at the Heysel stadium in Belgium left 39 supporters dead as Liverpool took on Italian side Juventus.

As a result England fans were banned from European competitions.

In the same month 56 fans were killed when a fire broke out in the wooden stands at Bradford City.

While rundown football grounds and poor security were seen as contributing factors, the then-prime minister saw law and order as the big issue.

Riots at the Heysel stadium in Belgium in 1985 (file image)

Rogan Taylor told Sky News he was not a football fan.

"Mrs Thatcher saw football as a kind of working class industrial wasteland - one of those rust bucket industries that she wanted to kick into touch like the miners and the trade unions and shipbuilders," he said.

"Like everything else she saw as something she ought to suffocate, rather than give life too."

In 1989 the Football Spectators Act was introduced with controversial plans to make every football supporter carry a compulsory ID card.

It was viewed by many as punishing the majority for the crimes of a minority of hooligans.

It was however eventually dropped after the deaths of 96 fans during the Hillsborough disaster later in the same year.

The families of those who died felt let down by their prime minister and her apparent lack of support following the tragedy.

However others say Lady Thatcher may have been hardline but changed football for the better.

Families of Hillsborough victims felt let down by Lady Thatcher

Radio commentator Tom Ross remembers some of the worst trouble of the 1980s.

"It was the worst time for football hooligansim. It was a terrible time for football, worldwide we were the pariahs of football with the hooliganism," he told Sky News.

"I think Mrs Thatcher did more to try and eradicate it - she wanted stiffer sentences for hooligans who were caught.

"Up until then, if you did something in the street, you had a stiff sentence, but if you were caught at a football match, it was a slap on the wrist.

"She did more to deal with football hooliganism and take them out of football than anybody else in the game."

The debate will continue as to whether Lady Thatcher really was a game-changer for football - for better or worse.

It is widely acknowledged that she had little time for sport, but like other prime ministers past and present she could not ignore the significance of Britain's national game.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Thatcher: No Silence At Football Matches

Dengan url

http://hajimabruroh.blogspot.com/2013/04/thatcher-no-silence-at-football-matches.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Thatcher: No Silence At Football Matches

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Thatcher: No Silence At Football Matches

sebagai sumbernya