Hillsborough disaster exonerating the Liverpool fans, MacKenzie issued the following statement: In response, Trevor Hicks, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, rejected MacKenzie's apology as "too little, too late", calling him "lowlife, clever lowlife, but lowlife". A press conference held by families of the victims also banned all "Sun" reporters from entering, with a sign on the door reading "NO ENTRY TO SUN JOURNALISTS". Sales of "The Sun" remain poor in Merseyside and a boycott is still practised. In 2004, its average circulation in Liverpool was 12,000 copies a day. Following the April 2016 verdict of unlawful killing, "The Sun" and
John Smith (chairman of Liverpool FC) of shirt sponsorship in British football in the early 1980s. As well as overseeing Liverpool's glories of the 1970s and 1980s, he also oversaw the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans at an FA Cup semi-final tie. John married Doris Mabell Parfitt in 1946, and remained married to her until his death in 1995. Smith was knighted in 1989 "for services to sport". John Smith (chairman of Liverpool FC) Sir John Wilson Smith (6 November 1920 – 31 January 1995) was the former chairman of Liverpool F.C. from 1973 to 1990. John Smith