15 April 1989. Today marks 28 years ago since 96 fans travelled to watch a football match and never returned home. Today, we remember them, just as Reds remember them every day. The 96 remain forever in our hearts.
Last year’s annual service at Anfield posed as the last, at the request of the families involved, and the Liverpool squad will today mark the anniversary at their Melwood training ground, where the Hillsborough memorial has been temporarily moved to.
Jurgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson will lay flowers this afternoon prior to the players and staff observing a minute’s silence at 3.06pm.
“This is a day of special significance for the LFC family; in fact it is a day of significance for the whole of football, but us more so,” Klopp told the Liverpool Echo.
“We will of course mark the occasion as a team – this is important. I know, at the wish of the families, this is the first year where the service does not take place at Anfield. But that doesn’t mean we won’t stop and remember in an appropriate manner.”
“There is a memorial at Melwood, with the names of the 96 people who lost their lives on April 15 1989; we, as a team, will pause, show our respect and remember them on this day. For the victims, the families of those who died and the survivors, their story will always be our story.”
“Their memory and the spirit of those who fought for them long after their deaths, will always be a reason for inspiration and hope, as well as sorrow.”
SEE MORE:
Klopp heaps praise on the ‘unbelievably skilled’ best friends at Liverpool
3.06pm- the minute in which Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest was stopped 28 years ago and the minute the entire city will come to halt to remember the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, cousins and grandparents.
The courage and the resilience shown by the families involved has been tremendous, as has the manner in which the city has united to fight for justice over the last 28 years. The 96 will never be forgotten.