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How can we come so close to another football disaster?  Nearly 18 years after 96 people were killed at Hillsborough, the authorities in France almost caused another disaster with a complete error in judgement last night when Manchester United played Lille.

It’s not clear just yet exactly what happened, and no doubt there will be a full inquiry and we will find out, but it appears that too many people were let in to a part of the ground, causing fans at the front to be crushed.  How can this possibly happen when the rules are now one seat per person?   

To make matters worse, instead of realising their error and helping people out, somebody obviously believed the fans were trying to storm the pitch and the police went to work with batons and tear gas.  Even at Hillsborough, the police were helping to get people clear and not trying to force them back into danger.

The police, and the stadium authorites should be punished to the full extent that the law and UEFA regualations will allow.  It’s a miracle that nobody was killed, although no doubt there will be more than a few injuries and a nightmares for many in the forth coming weeks.

Platini now has some serious work to do, and hopefully he will not pull his punches even though it is a French club.  Maybe it will take his mind off of trying to reduce the number or Premier League clubs allowed in the Champions League  - at least in the UK we have learned lessons from the past.