Sheffield Wednesday have denied they failed to reveal the full recommendations of a safety review after Newcastle United supporters complained of overcrowding and the risk of injury during an FA Cup tie at Hillsborough in accounts manager Eddie Howe described as “distressing.”
Wednesday voluntarily reduced the capacity for away fans from 4,700 to 3,700 in the Leppings Lane End – the scene of the 1989 tragedy that resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans – during a review into events surrounding Newcastle’s FA Cup third round defeat back in January.
That reduction has now been enforced permanently by Sheffield City Council, but the League One club are challenging the decision and believe they were cleared of any wrongdoing in the review and have adopted all the other recommendations made by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG).
Both Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Wednesday have also denied there had been an attempt to keep the details of the SAG meeting secret.
A senior source at Sheffield Wednesday told Telegraph Sport: “The Council have already denied there was a Freedom of Information Request from Newcastle and we can confirm that was not the case. There has been no attempt to keep anything secret. The minutes of a public meeting were shared, as they would have been with anyone else, with Newcastle United upon request.”
Telegraph Sport understands that Newcastle were told on Monday that the capacity of the Leppings Lane stand would be permanently reduced, but Wednesday were not told until the following day.
The club is now seeking to have the capacity increased again, arguing that there is no need for it to remain in place as all the other changes recommended by the safety review have been implemented.
The SAG meeting considered 50 accounts of supporters, which included testimony of “fans being directed through wrong turnstiles”, “overcrowding leading to distress among children”, “a lack of direction from stewards”, “tickets sold in areas that were netted off” and “police and stewards being unresponsive to requests for information”.
Howe has praised Newcastle United and its supporters for refusing to accept there were no problems or mistakes made.
“It’s hugely important [ the fans’ voices were heard],” said Howe, ahead of Friday night’s trip to Nottingham Forest. “With those eye witness accounts, they should be encouraged to listen to that feedback because it is only the supporters who are living that experience.
“Anything that can help the long-term success and safety of match day experiences of the supporters is crucial, so we need to gather those findings and try to implement the changes that improve it. Absolutely [it was distressing hearing those accounts], especially with the history attached to the stadium. That was hugely concerning for me. Safety is of paramount importance.”
Howe, though, refused to comment on the fact that Sheffield Wednesday were challenging the stadium capacity reduction order.
Part of the Sheffield Wednesday and City council statement from February read: “A review at Hillsborough Stadium over concerns about crowd movements has concluded, stating that all aspects of safety at the stadium complied fully with the club’s Safety Certificate. Minor recommendations were made relating to the overall matchday experience.”
Sheffield Wednesday’s chief operating officer Liam Dooley added at the time: “We are pleased that the findings support the confidence we have in our procedures.”
Alex Hurst, chair of NUST, said: ‘The club [Newcastle] have done brilliantly. They could have just accepted Sheffield Wednesday’s version of events but they didn’t.
The fact that Sheffield Wednesday did not publicly announce that the capacity has been reduced is worrying. That is a very serious outcome, that the Safety Advisory Group at Sheffield City Council felt it necessary to make that recommendation. You would expect the club to reveal that and also apologize to the Newcastle fans who had to go through this process.”