Welsh club sacks striker over tragedy comments

CYMRU Alliance club Gresford Athletic have sacked striker Jonny Taylor over comments he made on Twitter about the Hillsborough disaster.

The player has since deleted the tweet and it’s unclear what the comments were.

A jury at an inquest in Warrington ruled on Tuesday that the 96 fans who died in the disaster in April 1989 were unlawfully killed.

It blamed grossly negligent policing on the day, as well as other factors like ground safety and the emergency response, while ruling that fan behaviour played no part.

A re-tweet from Taylor was still on his account yesterday morning, and read: “I don’t see how the fans’ behaviour didn’t contribute towards the deaths. If they didn’t behave the way they did it doesn’t happen #victims.”

He said his original comment went no further than the re-tweet – originally posted by his brother, Jared Taylor.

Jonny has also since deleted the re-tweet.

In a statement the Wrexham County Borough-based club said: “We can confirm that as a result of the comments Gresford Athletic have severed all ties with the individual concerned. We do not condone any of the views expressed and most definitely do not support them.”

Taylor apologised, saying: “It wasn’t intended to upset anybody.”