US soccer media's own goal

A friend directed The CounterAttack to a Premier League-focused blog yesterday, EPL Talk, that revealed that Fox Soccer Channel show host Steve Cohen has managed to rip open old wounds. Cohen, who also hosts the World Soccer Daily radio show, wheeled out the old line that Liverpool fans were responsible for the Hillsborough disaster that killed 96 men, women and children.

It boggles the mind that anyone could still believe this canard twenty years later. The Taylor Report - which reviewed the tragedy and made recommendations that were responsible for the transformation of soccer in England - comprehensively laid out the facts. It was not Liverpool fans - and most emphatically not ticketless Liverpool fans looking to sneak into the game - that caused the disaster.

The Report makes it clear that the attitude of the Yorkshire police towards soccer fans was the primary cause of the disaster (bold face by The CounterAttack):

Policing on the Day

277. One of the regrettable features of the football scene as it has developed is the enormous expenditure of money, time and effort in employing large numbers of police all over the country to guard against the sort of disorder and misbehaviour which have become endemic. Police management of a game of football has become a military operation. The problems faced and the responses received must be disheartening and may have tended to harden police attitudes to supporters in general.

278. It is fair to state that over many years the South Yorkshire Police have given excellent service to the public. They have handled crowd problems sensitively and successfully at a large number of football games including major matches, during strikes in the coal industry and the steel industry, and in other contexts.

Unfortunately, their policing on 15 April broke down in the ways already described and, although there were other causes, the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.

279. In all some 65 police officers gave oral evidence at the Inquiry. Sadly I must report that for the most part the quality of their evidence was in inverse proportion to their rank. There were many young Constables who as witnesses were alert, intelligent and open. On the day, they and many others strove heroically in ghastly circumstances aggravated by hostility to rescue and succour victims. They inspired confidence and hope.

280. By contrast, with some notable exceptions, the senior officers in command were defensive and evasive witnesses. Their feelings of grief and sorrow were obvious and genuine. No doubt those feelings were intensified by the knowledge that such a disaster had occurred under their management. But, neither their handling of problems on the day nor their account of it in evidence showed the qualities of leadership to be expected of their rank.

(See the full interim report, which reviewed the disaster, and the full final report, which made recommendations to fix the problem).

But my problem is not limited to Steve Cohen. I have commented previously about the lack of any serious analytical commentary from the US soccer media. Everything is taken at face value without much discussion - player selections, coaching tactics, and unfortunately, controversial comments such as Cohen's. Thankfully there have not been many of the latter but how would we know?

I will grant that Hillsborough is not a US soccer problem. But only the most misanthropic cretin would not empathize with the victims' families and the survivors. Hillsborough was a seminal event that brought the entire football community together. Its name, sadly, stands on its own.

So there is no excuse for the American soccer writers not to hold Cohen accountable for his comments. It is consistent that SportsCenter would ignore this - heck, it's just soccer. Mainstream American sports fans still think that there are riots at every soccer game anyway.

And spare me any comments that discussing the situation only grants Cohen a stage. It was inappropriate to blame the victims at this time of rememberance. Most importantly though, as was made clear, he was just flat-out factually wrong.

So where is the criticism from the Treckers, Michael Lewis, Ives Galarcep, Ridge Mahoney or Paul Gardner? Where is the denouncement from Soccer America? I'm looking at you, Goal.com, YanksAbroad.com, Soccernet.com and yes you, Fox Soccer, to set the record straight.

Blaming the victims is always a mean-spirited tactic designed only to cause pain. Cohen's comments were as bad as racist or anti-Semitic comments that ended the careers of commentators in other American sports. That might sound disconnected but those are the only parallels that can give most Americans a glimpse into why the comments were so insulting.

See, here's the thing: so long as someone can make purposely hurtful and factually incorrect comments without penalty, it means that US soccer fans are still naive babes in the woods. Failure to grasp elemental concepts that are understood everywhere else is a sad hallmark of US Soccer. Usually this manifests itself on the pitch, with unsophisticated tactics or failing to capitalize on opponents' mistakes. This time it was something far more insidious.

The Taylor findings made clear that it was the fear of hooliganism that drove senior police officials to treat soccer fans with less respect than they should have. In the 1970s and 1980s, all English fans were lumped in with the ridiculously miniscule percentage that were hooligans. Snobbery mandated that football was a game played by "them" and thus were to be treated as "less than".

Americans don't understand that sort of classism but do have experience with police overreactions and problems with race relations. "44 shots" is probably the best way to help Yanks understand why Hillsborough was able to happen.

It doesn't matter that Hillsborough was 20 years ago, or that it didn't happen in the States. The tragedy was a watershed moment in world soccer history. It is quite clear that Cohen made the comments he did precisely because he knew he could get away with them. He was comfortable in the knowledge that he would keep his jobs, no matter what. After all, having an English accent makes him a "knowledgeable person about soccer".

Cohen's beliefs are his to have, no doubt. But the instant he uses a public forum to spread misinformation, he has to be held accountable for his words. That responsibility is doubly important when the audience is not as well-versed as it could be.

Shame on the US soccer media for not holding Steve Cohen accountable for this insulting tripe.