LFC - Liverpool For Crime

Now as far as im aware the reason behind football players being booked for removing a shirt is to prevent potential friction through the usage of political messages. For me, that is all fair enough. With all the controversial goings on in the world and the vastly differing points of view it is only right that we are not force fed the players beliefs on matters on what is an entirely irrelevant platform - the football pitch.

However, it appears that football clubs can do what the hell they like. Professional Victims Liverpool F.C have once again publicly backed a man convicted of attempted murder of a Bulgarian chip shop owner who ended up with brain damage but miraculously survived a paving slab smashed onto his head.

Mr Shields was in Bulgaria with several other Scousers after the Champions League victory in Istanbul. a brief summary of facts about that fateful night is the following...



now that is fairly damning evidence. several eye witness reports and Shields was also picked out of several line ups

During the case, another man, a Mr Sankey, made a verbal statement via his lawyer 'confessing' to the crime but refused to put it in writing, go back to Bulgaria or put himself in front of a court. he only did this after being promised he would not be forced to go to Bulgaria through having no extradition laws with Bulgaria.

here are the facts that eminated from that 'admission'...





Now its plain to see that Sankey has 'confessed' in order to get Shields off and thinking that because he can not be extradited that the case would simply collapse. clearly Sankey's 'confession' was littered with inconsistencies which didnt add up which in turn pretty much cemented the case.

Liverpool FC, before the game with West Ham chose to publicly appeal for this scumbags release. the players warmed ip in 'Free Michael Now' shirts and a mosaic was also held up in the Kop spelling out Free Michael Now, while campaigning actress Sue Johnston gave a speech on the pitch alongside Shields' parents calling for the British government to ask Bulgaria for a reprieve.

All this in the wake of the outcry over David Norris recieving a reprimand for his celebration in 'honour' of his murdering pal Luke McCormick.

Hopefully the FA will throw the book at this sickening example of a football club. I understand the FA are going to ask Liverpool for an explanation of this and hopefully aciton will follow.

WHat are your views on Liverpool FC and this whole saga? should the club be doing this for a convicted criminal? do you actually think he is innocent? Sankey did actually also withdraw his 'confession'. what do you make of that?

Full impartial details of the case can be found here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1495692/Innocent,-gentle-giant-Or-remorseless-thug-guilty-of-attempted-murder.html

just want to know ..is there any reason you are asking about all this ......this was about 3 yrs ago i think . Has there been a recent development .....i remember a bit about the case ....he was sentenced to 15 yrs i recall .

Because on Monday Liverpool FC dug the case back up by publicly warming up in porpaganda shirts and political messages via cards on seats.

Should a football club really be getting involved in attempted murder cases in which the person involved has been found guilty in a court of law and all evidence points to this being the correct decision?

will arsenal start a campaign for their supporter Osama Bin Laden?

Here's where I want to say something bad about scousers, but I'll resist.

i actually thought he was innocent but the evidence you have submitted seems to ridicule that idea , if he is guilty then Liverpool as a football club are bang to rights......unfortunately they have proved foolish and should make a public apology and retract their support.....

I just dont understand the backing for him even after so many witness reports proving it was him

ok ..thanks ....one question i would ask is ..Liverpool are a huge club and they would not warrant(i would presume) such a display of support for someone without having looked at all the details of the case and investigation ....i mean was this all the players wearing these shirts or just a few ...

I hear the FA is to take no action against Liverpool for this breach of rules .......

Excellent thread Steely, it's finding stuff like this that made you MOTM

There's no doubt about it, Liverpool Football Club should be punished. Whether Shields is innocent or not, it's not LFC's place to give a public opinion.

For what it's worth, given the facts presented in the article, I'm in very little doubt that Shields is guilty as hell.

Scouse scum.

we all know Liverpool can be economic with the truth. they are known to throw around propaganda and play the victim when the fact is that several of their fans were out causing trouble. if they are so adamant for justice they would be encouraging the man they must think did the crime to hand himself in., instead we get no mention of him.

Liverpool can look at every detail of the case, i would imagine they would still not be as close to the truth as the very people who witnessed the sickening crime. Liverpool, as a club and a city, forever paint themselves as victims in all manner of situations. this is just another example of Liverpool enforcing the old 'them and us' mentality that forever holds the city back.

Liverpool shouold be publicly condemning this crime and the fans involved. the action of the club to get involved in this is disgusting.

also who's bright idea was it to get that actress Sue Johnstone on the pitch waffling on like Delia's crack ridden mother? pathetic anbd embarrassing. it was more like a political rally than a genuine plea for 'justice'.

it makes me laugh they claim this Shields was in bed just a few hours after the end of the Champions League final victory and 'several' of his pals saw him asleep as they ahd all individually gone back to his room at a variety of stages despite some of them not staying at that room and therefore having no key and no business being there.

the reporting of this case in this country has also been disgusting. trying to find an impartial report is almost impossible. i hate the way this country's media feels it is high and mighty enough to mock every other nations legal system. they did so with Portugal as well. like ours is the greatest or something.

looking at all the facts of the case i fail to see how anybody can say he is innocent. his fat parents should be ashamed to show their faces in public, not parading around in £4.99 propaganda t-shirts like their son is the next Neslon Mandela.

Reading the above quotes, it does certainly appear as though Shields is guilty, however I have not read enough on the case to give a fair opinion. With that said though, I will comment on Liverpool Football Club getting involved in such an astonishing campaign to free this guy.

Firstly there is absolutely no need for the club to get involved. Unless the club has interviewed each and every eye witness who stood up in court speaking out against Shields, how can they possibly be so sure that Shields is innocent? There is no way anyone involved with Liverpool FC can be 100% certain that Shields is innocent and therefore a campaign such as this is ridiculous.

The FA should have made an example of Liverpool in order to stamp this sort of thing out in future. Campaigns such as this have no place in football or at football games.

Agree Liverpool shouldnt be involved in this at all, there is a time and a place for footballers and football clubs to show an opinion on cases or politics etc and this isnt one.

An example of one that I think is justifiable is Berbatovs support of the Bulgarian nurses who were imprisoned in Libya fur supposedly intentionally infecting children with aids. It was a ludicrous charge and entirely politically motivated and at the time Berbatov was at Spurs I wanted the club to show its support for them too.

ot the tune of 'Ring of Fire' by the legendary Mr Cash...

"Michael shields got fifteen years
Now he's getting bummed by queers
Ten more years without parole
He's gonna need a new arsehole..."

you gotta love it

I think the only person that truly knows wether he is guilty or not is Shields himself, their main line of appeal seems to be the Sankey confession, although the police say he was confessing to another crime altogether as his description didnt fit the assault at all, all the evidence points to him being guilty which is the reason he is still banged up in this country, the Bulgarian government have wiped their hands of the whole affair and it is now down to the Home Office, who have decided he still needs to be in prison, albeit an open one.

An Ipswich player got fined the other week, and slated in the media for stupidly sticking up for his mate, Liverpool get away scot free.

Hes back in the news again today, I was watching Sky News earlier & they mentioned something about him being released before Christmas. It was only the headlines I saw so didnt catch the full story...

What I like most on a Thursday morning is to read another silly comment about Liverpool - 'we all know Liverpool can be economical with the truth' and 'Liverpool forever paint themselves as victims' are true to a point, but if you look at the post-war facts, Liverpool has been victimised, especially by the adorable Lady T. But I reckon that East-End Cockneys are more whinging than the average Scouser. And is there any team in the world which is not 'economical with the truth'?

About Liverpool getting involved in this Free Michael case - why shouldn't they? I emember the uproar when Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman got in [beep!] for wearing 'support the dockers' t-shirts and the spineless FA fined them.
Football teams are high-profile, and Liverpool's support is, in my opinion, exactly the sort of light that needs to be thrown on this case so it can be fully investigated. Liverpool fans, for the last 3 years, have been flying 'Free Michael' banners, so the club are just supporting their fans. If they are wrong, and Michael is guilty (as you seem to know), then they are wrong.

To finish, what may seem like a naive question - What has this got to do with the FA?

don't know what to say about the 'his fat parents' comment - do you have kids? How would you feel if you believed (rightly or wrongly) that your son was being held in prison abroad for something he hadn't done? Please be honest

what do you have to back up your suggestion of cockneys being bigger 'whingers'? you clearly agree with my points about Liverpool so it shouldn't be unnecessary for me to back that up.

Liverpool should not get involved because this is entirely unrelated to football. Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler were employees of Liverpool FC and representing Liverpool FC. Michael Shields has nothing to do with the club. he was not even in the same country as anybody connected with Liverpool FC. this did not happen in Istanbul. it happened in Bulgaria. it was eesentially a private holiday.

The club and its fans have no more of an idea of Shields' innocence than i do and yet you seem to pour scorn on my insinuation that he is guilty. i have merely read the facts of the trial and made my assumption based on that. an impartial report on the case, which incidentally is hard to come by in the British xenophobic press.

The FA ban the promotion of political propaganda though players and clubs. Liverpool were given a ticking off. a football stadium is a place for football, not a political rally. if they wanted a political rally it should have been on a non-match day.

of course they will believe their son. incidentally he isnt held abroad. he has been over here for ages. the fact is their son and his friends are thugs and scumbags. they must be proud. personally id hope to raise my offspring a little better.

I agree with Steely on this.

If you look at the raw facts of the case, then it looks very much like Shields is guilty.

the campaign to get Michael Shields out of prison has been boosted with the latest ruling by the high court in London .

source : BBC news


Jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields has won an important battle at the High Court in his bid for a free pardon. The 22-year-old is serving a 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of a barman in Bulgaria in 2005, but has always maintained his innocence.

High Court judges have ruled Justice Secretary Jack Straw has the power to issue a pardon to Shields. Mr Straw is now considering a decision. Shields' family said they hoped he would be home for Christmas. Mr Straw had previously insisted he did not have the power to free him and the case went to the High Court in London.

The two senior judges ruled that it was for Mr Straw alone - and not the courts - to decide how to exercise that power. The judges said the pardon relied on fresh evidence which had not been considered by the Bulgarian courts.
A confession by another Liverpool fan, Graham Sankey, who was in Istanbul at the time of the attack, but who later retracted it, would not form part of the new evidence, the judges said.

Mr Straw said he would appoint senior counsel to advise him on whether to pardon Shields or not, in light of the High Court decision. The Justice Secretary said the case had to be looked at very closely, along with any implications it could have for the cases of other British prisoners abroad.


Following the decision, his father, Michael Shields senior, said: "It's just heart-breaking for us.
We just want to get him home and put everything behind us and get on with our lives. It's been so hard for us.
"I hope and pray Mr Straw can do the right thing."


Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International, which defends the rights of those facing charges in a country other than their own, welcomed the ruling.

He said: "After a grossly unfair trial in Bulgaria, Michael Shields has already spent more than three years in prison.

"It is now up to the British government to pardon Michael and to bring his ordeal to an end."

so was the trial grossly unfair ....what is this fresh evidence that the Bulgarian court had not considered ...the Sankey confession is said to be not part of this new evidence ...so what could it be ?

well now its in the hands of Mr Straw its plainly obvious he will go free regardless of anything else.

[quote="Steely Hill"][quote="spike74"]

Hi Steely,
I've taken the liberty of numbering your points and will briefly respond to them in turn.
1. Just from my own experience of living and working in both Liverpool and London.
2. Michael Shields is a fan of the club. Without fans, clubs would be nothing. Private holiday was to watch final and be 'closer' to the atmosphere (don't understand why but know that thousands of fans went to Bulgaria for this reason).
3. I don't pour scorn on your idea of him being guilty, but I feel that your report was a bit one-sided.
4. Football is a game for the people, and the people have political views (whether it's about miners strikes or potential false imprisonment). A political rally outside of match day would draw minimal attention, and attention is what political rallies are all about.
5. Let's assume he's innocent (if you can) - is it still a 'fact' that he is a thug and scumbag? Come on Steely, you sound like someone who doesn't think before he types, whereas I'm sure that this is not true. And with offspring all we can do is hope. How do you know his parents raised him badly? Supposedly, Peter Sutcliffe's parents raised him well but look what he did...

My view - Liverpool should be commended for supporting a cause which is important to their fans, a cause which is about the possible false accusation and imprisonment of one of their fans - and if the FA or any other official body wants to penalise Liverpool for doing this, then that's what happens. The fans will probably try to raise the money to pay the fine anyway, like they did with the silly Fowler/McManaman doscker's strike fine. About the innocence or guilt of Michael Shields I have no opinion. To be honest, I haven't really followed the case (hence my not knowing he is in UK).

cheers
Spike

[quote="spike74"][quote="Steely Hill"]



Thanks, i like it!

1. Fair enough, we shall agree to disagree.

2. they went to Bulgaria clearly for cheap whores and alcohol. its the only reason why british lads go there.

3. the actual report i quoted and produced a link from was entirely independant. anything i added was merely an opinion after reading of the facts from the case.

4. politics and football should not be mixed. football should be a release. its not a place to air views and whip up propaganda stories. such events should be condemned.

5. personally i would be very suprised if he wasnt a violent scumbag. maybe im prejudice or whatever but thats the aura he gives off. i highly doubt he is the 'gentle giant' his parents would have you believe in the same way these teen 'gangsters' are not the law abiding straight A students their parents claim. comparing him with the yorkshire ripper is a tad extreme methinks. the man has a mental illness.

see i disagree. i dont think it is Liverpool's place to speak out and produce propaganda about what was a sickeningly hideous crime. if there was 100% damning proof that he was innocent then fair enough. i do not believe such evidence exists so we can only go on the facts presented at the trial which to my mind shows him up as guilty.

God Bless and Good Luck

Sir Steely of Hill