PL Chairman wants respect for the 96

Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards has become the latest person to back Liverpool Football Club’s request to UEFA to help avoid their Champions League quarter-final second-leg be played on April 15th ‘“ the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster.

Richards, former chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, was at the stadium in Sheffield in 1989 when 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. [More Information]

“Liverpool shouldn’t be playing on the anniversary of Hillsborough out of respect, more than anything, for the people that died, and we should keep that respect in football,” he said.

“Being involved with Sheffield Wednesday for a lot of years it has been a big thing in my life. I was at the game and I don’t think that anyone will ever forget what happened that day.

“I was on the pitch. I had two doctors as my guests at the game and we all went down on to the pitch. It was very difficult and it took a long time to get over what happened but that tragedy drove me on to try to make things better.”

The draw for the quarter-finals of the competition will be made in Switzerland this Friday morning (20 March).