COMMENT: Too many minute silences

At yesterday's F.A. Cup semi-final at Wembley a small group of Chelsea fans disrupted the pre-kick off minute's silence. This has re-ignites the debate about respect in society and, specifically, the behaviour of football fans.

But doesn't that miss the point, to some extent?

In recent years there has been a massive proliferation of minute silences for all sorts of things. Increasingly the reason for the minute silence isn't known or understood, and, increasingly, the minute silence has no relevance to the fans.

Yesterday, for instance, the minute silence was to mark the 23rd anniversary (hardly a significant one) of the Hillsborough disaster - a match that was between two completely different teams, the most affected of which, Liverpool, is a fierce rival of the two teams playing.

Sure, I get the point that it is polite to respect a minute silence whenever it is done and for whatever purpose. In an ideal world that would be the case but, as far as I can see, there are now do many minute silences at sporting events that they have been made insignificant. There currency is now worthless

To me there are two solutions:

1) Restrict minute silences to truly significant memorials, and, on the whole, only ones that the teams playing are affected by

2) Have more minute of applause when that is appropriate - I accept it isn't always appropriate but when it is it is vastly preferable.

COMMENT: Is saying sorry ever enough?

We've all done it, I'm sure: One child has upset another and you make one apologise and then tell them to play nicely. Most of the time it works. Well, it works for children.

In the adult world, though, ate things different? Can saying sorry ever be enough when you've upset or offended someone else?

In order to calm the furore/Twitter spat that his ill-judged/misplaced/ignorant comments about Liverpool F.C. and the Hillsborough disaster, "comedian" Alan Davies has issued and apology for any upset he caused. Additionally, he's made a £1,000 donation to one of the Hillsborough charities.

Now, there are some who will say that he's accepted he made a mistake and has apologised, let's move on.

But others will point out that he still said what he said, and only a couple of days ago, and it's too easy to just say sorry. Some will say that saying sorry is a meaningless gesture, and even the £1,000 donation is nothing for a man who, in a couple of week's time, will earn several times that for a one night show at the Liverpool Empire.

It's hard to see where the line can by drawn to appease all sides. Clearly, Hitler couldn't just have said sorry for the Holicaust and Second World War, but if all that's been done is to upset people's emotions surely a sincere apology should be accepted?

Maybe the important thing is that the apology actually seems genuine and believable, and, maybe in Mr. Davies case, there are many who don't accept that he is genuinely remorseful.

COMMENT: Alan Davies, Hillsborough and Liverpool F. C.

Yesterday, Twitter, or the portion of Twitter that cares about such matters, exploded in indignation at some comments the "comedian" and actor Alan Davies had made about Liverpool F.C.

Twitter often manages to get its knickers in a twist over the smallest minutiae of a story, and wo betide anyone who finds themselves on the wrong side of a Twitter spat, faced with a beyong mob of accusations and insults all carefully restricted to 140 characters.

what was it that Alan Davies said that was so outrageous?

In a discussion for an Arsenal podcast, Mr. Davies is a well-known gooner, he had said that it was silly that Liverpool F.C. had asked not to play their F.A. Cup semi-final against Chelsea on the 15th April because it was the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. He pointed out that other clubs, including Rangers and Manchester United, have played matches on anniversaries of disasters that had affected their clubs, and, indeed, Liverpool themselves have never asked not to play matches on the anniversary of the Heysel disaster, which took place only four years before Hillsborough.

Davies then went on to say that his gran died on August 22nd and, while it's a significant date in his life, he doesn't just sit at home or refuse to work on that day.

Here's the recording:



Superficially, Davies has a point. In 1971, 66 Rangers fans were killed in a crush at Ibrox Park, and the same club suffered a similar loss in 1902, when 25 supporters lost their lives, but they haven't asked for those dates to remain clear each year when the fixtures are being organised.

And surely, I guess Mr. Davies' logic would go, that an event that happened in 1989, is now long enough ago that it should no longer have the same significance it had, say, 12 months after the disaster which saw 97 Liverpool fans crushed at an F.A. Cup semi-final against Notttingham Forest.

But then, that's the point. The match against Chelsea is another F.A. Cup semi-final - this will, naturally, mean a heightening of emotions, and remind more people of the events that took place in Sheffield 23 years ago.

And the other point that Mr. Davies has ignored, is that there are still legal proceedings continuing with regard to Hillsborough while all the other disasters he mentioned were both earlier and, legally, closed.

I'm no fan of Alan Davies. I think he is a bit of a numpty, and has, on Twitter, made an a bit of an arse of himself on more than one occasion (particularly with his blind support for Stephen Fry at times when Nr. Fry is being particularly precious or attention seeking), but, yet again, a Twitter spat has escalated a silly, ignorant and ill-judged comment into something that seems earth shattering and important.

Alan Davies should think more carefully before he opens his mouth to criticise the fans from other teams, but the whole explosion of hate and indignation against him is out of all proportion. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Akan Davies, this is just an idiotic comment.

COMMENT: The SPL wants to re-introduce standing at football matches...

The SPL wants to re-introduce standing at football matches - are their memories really that short?