Cohen caused widespread outrage when he first made comments in 2006 blaming Liverpool supporters "without tickets" and claimed they were the "root cause" and were "perpetrators" of the Hillsborough disaster. It should be noted, that at the time he did apologise for making these comments. These comments were later repeated by Cohen however, culminating in him making them at the time of the 20th Anniversary of the tragedy.
The LFC New York Supporter's Club decided to take action against Cohen, and launched a campaign to remove him from his positions within the American media. The campaign involved the contacting of the radio show's sponsors, and making them aware of the situation and Cohen's actions.
As the campaign progressed, it was an increasing success. Fox Sports Channel announced that it would be removing Cohen as co-host of the "Fox Football Fone In" which he had been involved with for four years. "World Soccer Daily's" sponsors also began to withdraw their support for Cohen's show, and ceased trading with them.
Liverpool Football Club also released a statement condemning Cohen; "Mr Cohen has obviously never taken the time to read the Taylor Report which stated clearly that ticketless fans were not a contributory factor or responsible for the events of that day. To use the 20th anniversary of the disaster to repeat false claims about Liverpool fans (which Mr Cohen first broadcast and then apologized for in 2006) is even more unacceptable."
Chelsea FC also released a statement; "We have distanced ourselves and will continue to distance ourselves from any comments that disrespect the memory of Hillsborough. We can see no benefit of giving him legitimacy by the club singling him out. Giving Mr. Cohen oxygen is the worst thing we could do. He is not a representative, nor ever has been a representative of the club."
On Friday August 21st 2009, Steve Cohen made the decision to resign his position on the show "World Soccer Daily" and subsequently the last broadcast of the show occurred. Cohen claimed his reasons for resigning were due to "death threats" made to members of his family by individuals he referred to as "Liverpool Fans." He claimed he had previously received "Anti-Semitic" emails targeting him but he had become increasingly concerned once his stepchildren had been contacted. During the final broadcast, Cohen and his co-host Kenny Hassan claimed that they felt they had no choice but to end the show.
The strength of opposition to Steve Cohen and his words shows that he had no right to make such statements. It was wrong, and above all else, inconsiderate to those families on Merseyside who have lost loved ones in the Hillsborough Tragedy. The NYC branch of the Official Supporter's Club has done the right thing in campaigning to have Cohen removed from his position after he spread blatant lies about what happened on that fateful day. Justice has been achieved; and yet to what extent?
However, the methods used by the NYC group in their campaign to remove Cohen from his position have to be examined. Somehow, there has been scope for 'so-called' "Liverpool fans," to overstep the line, and take actions against Cohen and people associated with him which were unreasonable. It must be observed that these "Liverpool Fans" were not members of the Supporters Groups.
The campaign involved writing to the sponsors of Cohen's show and asking them to withdraw their support for his radio show. LFC and Chelsea were also contacted and they subsequently pledged their support to the campaign. As has been pointed out, the campaign was successful, in that sponsors did remove their backing for Cohen's show; however, it does not seem that lack of sponsors is what caused Cohen to resign. It was the actions of a few select individuals that forced Cohen to resign; so was the campaign really a success? It achieved its aims, Cohen no longer broadcasts; however, this would not appear to have been achieved by the NYC Supporters Group.
So has the image of Liverpool Football Club been tarnished as a result of this? Some of the mixed reaction after "World Soccer Daily's" demise may suggest that it has. What's important is Steven Cohen can't broadcast his lies about what happened at Hillsborough and the families can focus their energies on the Campaign for Justice for their loved ones. However, it is important to question that in this particular case, justice has been achieved, but at what cost?