British police on Tuesday apologized to the families of the 97 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy in a stadium in 1989, unveiling reforms for more transparency in order to avoid "seeking to defend the indefensible".

The terrible crowd movement in this Sheffield stadium on April 15, 1989, during the semi-final of the FA Cup between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, killed 97 people.

“For what happened, as a senior police official, I offer my deepest apologies.

Policing has gone really bad, ”admitted on Tuesday, almost 34 years after the worst tragedy in British sport, Andy Marsh, director general of the College of Policing, which federates the various police forces in the United Kingdom.


"The police have deeply failed in their obligations to the bereaved," he also said.

Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to plague the lives of family members ever since.

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As Liverpool fans thronged the turnstiles as kick-off approached, security had a door opened leading to their wing to ease the pressure.

But the fans had rushed to an already overcrowded stand.

Insufficient according to the families of the victims

In 2017, a report commissioned by the government made 25 recommendations for families to obtain justice.

Of these, 11 concerned the police.

Five years after that report, police said on Tuesday that all police officers in England would sign a charter stressing that they "must recognize when mistakes have been made and must not seek to defend the indefensible".

"Police officials today pledged to respond to any major incident with transparency and compassion for the families involved," said Martin Hewitt, one of Britain's police chiefs.

For the families concerned, this is insufficient.

“The apologies, although welcome, make no reference to a change in the law,” reacted a spokeswoman for Hillsborough Law Now, an association of victims.

The group is campaigning for the creation of a "legal obligation of openness" for authorities and public officials.

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