Nottingham Forest will consider erecting a memorial on the City Ground to recollect those that died in the Hillsborough disaster, says chairman Tom Cartledge.
A crush during an FA Cup semi-final against Forest in 1989 resulted in the death of 97 Liverpool fans.
A bunch of Forest fans who attended the match have urged their club to contemplate paying a everlasting tribute.
Cartledge said he would meet with them “to talk about this.”
On the BBC Sounds podcast, Hillsborough Unheard: Nottingham Forest Fans, Cartledge said: “I would be delighted to sit down with these people and understand what it should mean and what it could look like.
“I know there are memorials at Anfield and Hillsborough and this is one we should consider looking at, and if people want to give me the idea they should do so.”
Forest’s chairman, who says supporters haven’t yet formally approached him about their desire for a statue, said he would consider involving the club’s supporters’ advisory council, which is made up of members from a variety of supporters’ groups.
Forest had previously paid tribute to those that lost their lives in the disaster by leaving 97 seats vacant during their FA Cup match against Liverpool in 2022. Instead, the seats were covered with a commemorative banner.
In 2016, an inquest found that the deceased Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed.
No Forest fans died at Hillsborough, but 28,000 of them remained on the ground to witness the tragedy unfold.
A bunch of them have come together in recent times and have benefited from trauma counseling made available by Liverpool fans through the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance (HSA).
A branch of the HSA has since been established in Nottingham.
“Central Point”
Martin Peach, who was a 12-year-old Forest fan at Hillsborough, is certainly one of the group’s members.
He was certainly one of the fans who laid a forest-themed wreath at the Hillsborough Memorial at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium in previous years.
“It’s been 35 years, but it’s never too late to create a focal point where people can come together to remember and discuss what they saw and what they think about it,” Peach said.
Former Forest defender Brian Laws, who played in the match abandoned at Hillsborough, says the club must have “done something sooner” to commemorate the tragedy.
“We were part of this day and it is one of the most historic days in sports,” he added.
“Even though you don’t want to commemorate something so terrible, it’s support and a feeling that we’re united. We are all in this together, we have all been there together and we all feel the same problems together.”
Liverpool fan and HSA vice-chairman Diane Lynn, who escaped being crushed to death at the end of Leppings Lane in Hillsborough, supports calls for tributes to be paid at Forest’s stadium.
“It would make a huge difference to the people who were at Hillsborough,” she said.
“It’s a meeting place, a place to talk and I really think it’s needed in Nottingham.”
Forest chairman Cartledge says the club, which already runs a variety of wellbeing programs and mental health projects, will look at how it may help supporters who were at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989.
“If there is still room where the football club can do more, and obviously knowing that these people have experienced trauma while watching Nottingham Forest, we have an extra layer of responsibility there and then I think we should probably do a bit more.” he added.
“I don’t know what level of support they may need and what they may not be able to obtain for themselves or from other groups formed to support survivors of tragedy or people who witnessed tragedy.”
Credit : www.bbc.co.uk
