Does he believe the mindless idiots will suddenly go away because his show is replacing the word ‘Soccer’ with ‘Football’ in the title?

Sort of suggests WSD had become financially unviable, due to an extraordinarily successful boycott of advertisers, and this was the sole reason the show was pulled. Strange then that there was no mention of this in his final show?! I guess it was much easier for him to allege threats to his step-children (as yet unfounded btw) and appeal to his listeners’ sympathy. Folks please – he’s really taking you all for mugs, and just watch you all line up with your ten dollar bills like sheep! Pity really. Why not hang fire and wait to see what Sirius do first?

For example, in the Interim Taylor Report (Interim being a misleading name here), in the passage #55-70 range, as well as the passage #190-215 range, several specific contributing factors by LFC supporters are cited…unruly drunks exacerbated the situation, fans were violent towards the police, hundreds if not thousands of ticketless supporters attempted to attend, a large number of supporters showed up in the waning moments before the match, supporters attempted to forcibly get through closed gates and jump turnstiles, etc., etc., etc.

Its bears reiteration…people who agree with LFC NY’s stance are saying that the actions of Liverpool supporters that day contributed *zero percent* to the tragedy. Please ponder how incredibly illogical that is before condemning Cohen’s views. If common sense isn’t sufficient enough, then read the evidence in the Interim Taylor Report as an independent thinker and draw your own conclusions (as opposed to blindly accepting Taylor’s conclusions, which are inconsistent with the evidence laid out in his own report).

Apologies to Liverpool supporters for attempting to have open communication about the facts…I know this is forbidden in your world and now I am subject to having my career ruined and family threatened.

America is what it is today precisely because of the Willingness; the willingness of everyday people to go to the courthouse, jail, hospital or morgue to make America be what it always claims about itself; from Abolition, to Labor rights, to women’s rights to civil rights to GLBT rights to rights for the disabled; all of that came about not because rich white men woke up one day and decided to play nice-nice; rather, it happened because of the aforementioned willingness to to those four things; so we’re used to actually standing fast against, or for, things. Its how the USA has proceeded, why my wife can vote, why we (black and white) can be married.

So for the Americans so aligned, possessed of the willngness themselves, this affront is doubled, our outrage trebled.

Its embarrassing that in 2009 people cannot have a mature debate/discussion about the details of this topic because of the thuggish reactions by LFC supporters….some of which celebrate the Munich disaster, avoid the Heysel topic as much as possible, yet go crazy and somehow illogically deem it “injustice for the 96″ when any alternative Hillsborough viewpoints are raised. So the families of the 96 are served justice if we continue to blindly believe that Hillsborough is 100% the police/stadium/security’s fault, and 0% the fault of fellow LFC supporters? How is that logical?

On a recent BBC podcast, I heard the point raised that Americans should ponder how they feel about 9/11 criticisms before criticizing LFC supporters for being hyper sensitive about Hillsborough discussions. Actually, many prominent people have held the US government partially responsible for 9/11, I don’t see Americans trying to ruin their careers or misperceiving that to be injustice to those who passed away on 9/11.

Its worth reiteration here…those who disagree with Cohen’s opinion feel that LFC supporters’ actions contributed *zero percent* to the 96 deaths. Can anyone objectively state that this is a logical viewpoint?

Its very sad that so many people in the football world can’t open their minds, get some perspective, and freely communicate on this issue.

From that perspective, for me it comes down to a simple costs/benefits analysis…

Benefits:

The benefit of this boycott was largely felt by either English liverpool fans or liverpool fans of English decent living in America and the substantive benefit is merely the intangible emotional satisfaction that these fans got from it.

Costs:

The burden of this boycott is largely being shouldered by the American soccer community along with its broader North American members and the substantive burden is the very real, objective, and tangible loss of what was arguably the best soccer community in the US. In other words, the burden is much more tangible.

When considering the fact that the benefit, at best, is merely an intangible emotional reaction amounting to “I feel better now that Cohen is gone” being felt by a primarily foreign (both in terms of citizenship as well as listernship) audience, I think there’s no objective way to say that the costs don’t grossly outweigh the benefits. On the contrary, the costs DO grossly outweigh the benefits.

Here we are, as Americans, Canadians, et al consuming the products of an American business (WSD), a product which was very highly valued by that same audience, only to appease the emotions of primarily English beneficiaries? WTF is about the only thing I can say to that. How the hell did such a travesty occur?

Imagine if Americans had managed to shut down 606? There would be a virtual shit-storm in the English football world. The English, perhaps the most tribally nationalistic about the sanctity of English football are massive hypocrites with this boycott.

They disagreed with his opinions, simply for the fact that they were NOT opinions. They were lies. And because they were lies that desecrated the memory of those that many in Liverpool hold dear, many supporters felt it was necessary to no longer buy the goods or use the services offered by his sponsors, whom were providing the funding for the platform through which he was communicating his lies. Is this not fair? Are they not right to do this, or is this “freedom” you lot keep spouting off about only applicable to Cohen?

And again, it is a shame that certain supporters were so enraged that they sent threats to Cohen or his family. Liverpool FC and its supporters clubs do not support their actions, only the peaceful protest and boycott against WSD. It is unfortunate to note that such supporters exist, but I can say for a certainty that if Cohen began giving “misinformed opinions” on Munich, or implied that the fans of Juventus at Heysel were at fault for the tragedy that occurred there, tiny minorities claiming to be supporters of these clubs would also send similar threats to him and his family. The actions of these small segments should not be associated with the club or their subsequent official supporters’ groups.

The loss of this show is a major loss to American football lovers. I sure hope you are proud of yourselves you rotten bunch of scum.

I think the consensus amongst most supporters of LFC is that Cohen did not deserve to get threats to him or his family, but he did deserve to lose his show.

There were countless efforts to communicate with him: emails, call-ins to the show, written letters even.. all for the purpose of setting the situation straight. It wasn’t until pressure was put on his sponsors that he began to issue his empty apologies (which he would go back on days later, or even later on in the show he issued it in).

Again, the events at Hillsborough are not up to debate, it is fairly clear what happened there and why. This is NOT the JFK assassination, this is NOT a plane/missile/nemanja vidic crashing into the Pentagon.

I’m sure the North American branches of the LFC supporter’s club are sad to see it has alienated a segment of the US soccer market- but I’m sure they’ll consider it a small price to pay if it means that Cohen’s “misinformed opinions” will cease to pervade the memory of Hillsborough.

As a result, there are many American EPL fans, some of whom weren’t even born in 1989, who’ll think that he’s been hounded out of his position. (You can see that in this thread.)

That’s not true: he knew exactly what he was doing, and kept waving a red rag at the Reds. Only a couple of months ago he was full of bravado about replacing deadbeat sponsors, which suggests a lack of self-awareness towards the position he held.

There’s absolutely no excuse for the abuse he’s received, and any threats ought to be followed up to the full extent. But he was spouting the kind of nonsense that wouldn’t be tolerated from a drunk Saturday night caller to Talk Sport in the UK, and got away with it because he was the first and most prominent soccer talk guy in the US.

Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek didn’t speak their opinion and get into trouble they made racially predjudiced comments about African Americans, Steven was accussing certain fans of being partly to blame.

Its not the same thing at all.