The neighbours (13/4/13)

Margaret Thatcher had died and I'd written about her. I'm not reposting it, she's not worth another second of our time. My initial look at this was that it was about her. But it's very much not. 

Today, I'm going to Goodison.

I'm obviously not a blue but J and Matty are. Season ticket holders for the last few years to boot. And yes, we get the obvious "Derby Days must be terrible in your house" comments and yes, on occasion they are but I've been lucky enough to marry a woman who is as passionate about her team as I am about mine.

J has a family commitment today so, since I'm on holiday, I'm taking Matty; 12 is still too young to go to a match on your own. It's not the first time that I've done this. It's not even the first time that I've been this week, on Thursday morning the club held an open training session for fans at the ground - I took Matty and one of his mates.

Apart from the obvious novelty of seeing professional footballers train up close the most impressive part of the day was witnessing the length of time that the entire first team squad spent afterwards in the car park outside signing autographs and posing for photos. It's the kind of thing that nobody ever comments on, the side of the game that doesn't get the publicity that it deserves - a little thing that means a huge amount to the kids that attended.

Today though is a thoroughly appropriate day for me to be at Goodison, for a Liverpool fan to be there; today Everton Football Club will mark the 24th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. There will be a minute's silence before kick off, a tribute on the Goodison screens, the players will wear black armbands and at half time they will play The Justice Collective's "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"

It's impossible to overstate Everton's involvement in the success of the Collective's Christmas number one; "He Ain't Heavy..." was EFC chairman Bill Kenwright's choice of song to pay tribute to the 96 victims at the first Everton home match after the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report. It was his idea that the teams be led out by two mascots, one in Everton kit, one in Liverpool. One wearing the number 9, one the number 6. Holding hands. United. As Everton have been with us since the 15th of April 1989.

Which makes it all the more mystifying that somebody in the media chose to ask Everton yesterday whether they would be observing a minute's silence for Margaret Thatcher.

An aside at this point. I knew very well where I stood initially on this point as the likes of Dave Whelan and John Madejski raised the idea of their clubs observing a silence for their beloved ex Prime Minister. It doesn't happen. Even if you were to ignore her still unspecified involvement in the post Hillsborough cover up (and, for me, the lack of personal papers still points to withheld information) Thatcher detested the professional game, detested the ordinary working class fan. Detested the working class, the people who still constitute the lifeblood of the game despite the Premiership era gentrification of the sport. Why should we be expected to observe a silence?

But as the week moved on I changed my mind. Let them organise their silences. Let them see what happens. Because it wouldn't be silence.

But that's an aside, the question that remains is 'How dare they ask Everton if they would be holding a minute's silence for Margaret Thatcher?"  Have they not been paying attention? Do they not realise that Everton isn't a separate entity to the city it's based in? That these may be two different clubs and there may be a river of passion that divides them when it comes to sporting rivalry but that it's the same community. That they are talking about families that have split loyalties in football but the same concerns in absolutely everything else. That Everton fans lost family members that day, lost friends.
That in this respect Everton as a club and a set of fans have supported Liverpool in the struggle for justice every single day of the last 24 years.

Everton Football Club replied that (and I paraphrase) they would be concentrating solely on the memory of Hillsborough and the 96 victims. That they were ever asked this question was disgusting.

Liverpool fans knew without doubt that Everton would support us this weekend. They always have.