A Manchester United fan has been banned from football stadiums for four years for wearing a shirt that mocks the number of Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster, a London court ruled on Monday.
James White, 33, wore a Red Devils shirt with the number 97 and the inscription “Not Enough” during the FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley on June 3, which ended in victory for the ‘citizens’ of Bernardo Silva and Rúben dias
Several photographs and videos of the man were disseminated on social networks, with the police finding him and bringing him to justice, for the allusion to the Hillsborough tragedy, in Sheffield, when almost a hundred Liverpool fans -Manchester United’s great rival – died crushed by the overcrowding in the stands.
Initially, the fan of the Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot club told the authorities that the number 97 had been chosen in honor of his grandfather, who died at the age of 97, and that the inscription “No basta” alluded to the fact that he had not had enough children.
However, at the court session in Willesden, north-west London, James White pleaded guilty to using “a threatening or offensive inscription which may constitute harassment or cause fear or distress”.
White cannot attend any official football match for four years and has to pay about 1,500 pounds (1,750 euros) in fines and court costs.
During the hearing, Diane Lynn, president of the Hillsborough Survivors Association, pointed out that these insults were particularly violent for the people present in the Hillsborough stadium at the time, who still suffer from feelings of “guilt”.
The defendant’s defense assured that he was “deeply sorry” for his actions and that he admitted having “deeply hurt people.”
Last Tuesday, it was a Tottenham fan who was banned from stadiums for three years after mocking the Hillsborough disaster during a game at Anfield Road, Liverpool’s home ground, on April 30.
Source: TSF
