Eamonn Holmes, TV presenter and Manchester United fan, has apologised for offending anybody with his remarks which compared the attack on his side’s bus last night with Hillsborough.
“This is going back to the 70s and to the 80s, the type of thing you were seeing that was bad about Hillsborough, for instance,” he said, and you can listen to the audio here:
His apology ends respectfully, but at the beginning, he attempts to distance himself from the comments he clearly and openly made.
Clearly there is a connection – he mentioned Hillsborough in a sentence in which he was criticising drunken West Ham fans – but acts like there’s no reason for the media to have forged a connection at all.
We do understand that Holmes probably didn’t mean to cause offence, as he suggested, but the fact he said what he said after the result of the inquest is pretty hard for us to stomach – and we don’t think an awful lot of his apology – where he points the finger elsewhere.
Just being made aware of someone trying to use me to stir up trouble re The Hillsborough disaster . How low , how disgusting.
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
The Hillsborough famalies have suffered enough without distasteful sniping like this. For the record there is no comparison between …..
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
…..events last night at West Ham and Hillsborough. On the programme I was trying to talk about images we never ever want to see again.
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
If anyone concluded anything different my humblest & most honest apologies. I am a huge supporter of The Hillsborough struggle for justice
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
I am an honest & decent football supporter &man & would never seek to create such an offence. Those who are trying to do so r very wrong.
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
Obviously there is no comparison between Hillsborough & the scenes at W Ham last night……
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016
I apologise unreservedly if anyone thought I was making that connection.
— Eamonn Holmes (@EamonnHolmes) May 11, 2016