ESPN's new 30 for 30 series "Soccer Stories" premieres on Tuesday night with a documentary entitled "Hillsborough," which examines the most deadly accident in sports history. Directed by Daniel Gordon, the film marks the 25th anniversary of the death of 96 fans during an FA Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. It is a comprehensive account of the events that unfolded leading up to and after the fatal crush of fans inside the stadium. The one-hour and 45-minute documentary uses interviews with police, fans in attendance and family members of those who died to tell the story. The focus of the emotionally-fueled documentary, however, involves a thorough examination of who was responsible for the tragedy. The most revealing and compelling testimony comes from author Phil Scraton, whose '99 book "Hillsborough: The Truth" is regarded as the definitive account of the disaster. Scraton explains how an emergency gate that opened outside the stadium to alleviate a crush of fans on the street resulted in a mass of supporters pouring into two small pens behind a goal in the stadium. Scraton said, "Once pens were introduced in Hillsborough in 1985 you couldn't move sideways. You had to stay in that confined area. That idea that fans could go down that tunnel into the backs of other fans, then find their own level was nonsense because there was nowhere to go." The second half of the documentary details the controversial aftermath of the tragedy, in which the South Yorkshire Police are accused of "sanitizing the truth" by blaming inebriated Liverpool fans for the crush, and family members who lost loved ones seek justice from the courts.
