Martin Tyler and the BBC have apologised after the football commentator appeared to link the Hillsborough disaster and hooliganism in a Radio 4 interview.
I apologise sincerely and wholeheartedly for any misunderstanding.”
The BBC said: “We regret that we did not robustly challenge Martin Tyler on a comment which appeared to link Hillsborough and hooliganism.
There is no connection at all between the Hillsborough disaster and hooliganism – I know that, and I was not implying that there was.
Martin has since apologised for the comment & clarified that these were separate examples and he did not intend to conflate the two.”
At the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough 97 Liverpool fans were killed.
“This morning, while discussing various crises facing football 30 years ago, I referred to some examples including the Hillsborough disaster and also controversy over hooliganism at matches,” he said.
Tyler, who works for Sky Sports, was interviewed on the Today programme to mark this month’s 30th anniversary of the Premier League.
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