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Ibrox Disaster


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I apologise straight of the bat here as I’m going to show my ignorance. 
 

Why at the age of 43yrs old am I only now finding out about this tragedy? 
January 2nd 1971, 65 boys/men and one young girl were crushed to death when attending a football match. 
After some quick research it seems that the warning signs were already there when this happened. And it seems incomprehensible that warnings were ignored. 
I am only putting this out there as I wish to know if I’m the only person that didn’t know anything about this. Also if some of our older/more experienced members have any memory of it. 
 

I have posted a couple of links that talk about the Ibrox disaster but there are many more (and much longer videos available) 

What I find unbelievable is that Kenny Dalgliesh was in the crowd when this happened and also present at both the Heysel & Hillsborough disasters too. Can’t imagine how that’s affected the guy 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Ibrox_disaster
 

https://news.stv.tv/feature/please-god-dont-let-me-die-50-years-since-ibrox-disaster?top&amp

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I do remember the event as it happened a few months after I started to go to the matches regularly again and for a while I paid the extra to get in the seats in the East End rather than standing on the Holgate and even waiting the few extra minutes till the stairs cleared a bit. Even when I went back to the terraces, I can remember a few times where people where briefly crushed against barriers during surges, so began to make sure that whenever possible, I was directly in front of a barrier..   I know that a lot of people see standing as an enjoyable part of the experience, but it can never be made absolutely safe, however I always felt that stairs and exit/entrance bottlenecks were the most worrying (apart from the bogs at the back of the Holgate) and feel much safer at the Riverside due to the more spacious design..  btw.. have you been able to obtain your Bombay Duck yet 🙂

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20 minutes ago, Old Codger said:

  btw.. have you been able to obtain your Bombay Duck yet 🙂

Not yet buddy. (To be honest I forgot about it) but I will definitely get some this month 😋

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I currently live just outside Glasgow, and it's well-known about up here, obviously. I think there's historically been an element of it-doesn't-matter to the coverage it has received in England, even though Ibrox has always been one of the UK's biggest and (pre-Covid) best-attended stadia. It also happened before all the press attention heaped on dangerous stadia and football hooliganism - Heysel, Hillsborough and Valley Parade all happened in a few short years, but the Ibrox disaster was seen as a bit of a one-off (at the time).

I'm not a fan of either Old Firm team, but it seems fitting that Rangers won today.

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I always used to make sure I was directly in front of a barrier when I went in the Holgate end, going extra early to achieve this objective. I started doing this after nearly getting crushed against a barrier when there was a massive surge from the back. Quite scary really.

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I know about the history probably because of my age and when I was young we learned how religion and church’s played a part and influenced clubs. Celtic/ ranges, Liverpool/ Everton, Man U / Man City and a host of others. In the early days it was a working mans outlet and masses attended games and safety was never a priority be it in industry or sport and sectarianism was a norm in all walks of life. 


As a boy when I first attended Ayresome park I would get a squeeze into the boys end and the ground was full to capacity, and I mean on big games choked. As I got older, teenager, I went into the Holgate end and the biggest mistake you could make was standing behind a barrier and getting crushed when crowds lurched forward. Or pi&& down your leg. 

When leaving a full ground it was easy to be transported by the body of crowd and  released some distance from your intended direction.  

Unfortunately it took major incidents to learn, implement and improve safety. 

i watch and listen to protesters today, the WOKE brigade, equality, environmental and the latest BLM groups who simply don’t realize or appreciate  how far we have come over the past +60 in my lifetime. 
 

Edited by sanddancer
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On 1/2/2021 at 12:32 PM, Uwe said:

I apologise straight of the bat here as I’m going to show my ignorance. 
 

Why at the age of 43yrs old am I only now finding out about this tragedy? 
January 2nd 1971, 65 boys/men and one young girl were crushed to death when attending a football match. 
After some quick research it seems that the warning signs were already there when this happened. And it seems incomprehensible that warnings were ignored. 
I am only putting this out there as I wish to know if I’m the only person that didn’t know anything about this. Also if some of our older/more experienced members have any memory of it. 
 

I have posted a couple of links that talk about the Ibrox disaster but there are many more (and much longer videos available) 

What I find unbelievable is that Kenny Dalgliesh was in the crowd when this happened and also present at both the Heysel & Hillsborough disasters too. Can’t imagine how that’s affected the guy 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Ibrox_disaster
 

https://news.stv.tv/feature/please-god-dont-let-me-die-50-years-since-ibrox-disaster?top&amp

You're not the only one. I was completely unaware of this too. I mean I don't really take much notice of football across the border, but I'd have thought there would be more reporting / coverage of the anniversary of something like this - like they do for Hillsborough and Heysel.

Poor Kenny must feel like bad luck / disaster has followed him around.

 

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Its a bit like the Superga air crash in 1949..  killed more than Munich but longer ago and outside living memory for most..  out of curiosity, thought I would see if any other events occurred even before that and came up with this... turns out that this wasn't the first time tragedy occurred at Ibrox

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_soccer_stampede_disasters

Vaguely remember reading about the one in Peru about the time of Ibrox II, but shows how little we know of what goes on in the world sometimes 

 

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