Conviction of Michael Shields - Justice Campaign

Justice Campaign

Following Shields' conviction on 26 July 2005, a vocal campaign in his support was launched in Liverpool, backed by many fans of Liverpool F.C. Shields's supporters branded the Bulgarian court decision 'unfair' and proclaimed him to be innocent. Belief in his innocence was stated by prominent faith and political leaders in the city of Liverpool, and by the then editors of the city's two newspapers. In particular, the campaign group was supported by the Leader of the Labour group on Liverpool City Council, Councillor (now Mayor) Joe Anderson, who is not a supporter of Liverpool F.C. but rather is a season ticket-holder at local rivals Everton F.C.

After hearing of Shields' arrest in Bulgaria, Graham Sankey, another English football fan present at the scene but now back in the UK, confessed to attacking Georgiev. The court refused to acknowledge Sankey's confession unless he returned to Bulgaria or agreed to appear in a British courtroom for questioning, via video connection, by a Bulgarian court. Sankey was not prepared to do this and subsequently retracted his confession. The confession itself did not match any of the facts determined by the investigation, including an inaccurate description of the attack weapon. It has also been reported that Sankey's confession was not given freely but was the result of threats against him and his family.

The campaigners organised public events to promote their cause, including displaying a live "Free Michael" mosaic spanning an entire stand at Liverpool's first home game of the 2005–2006 season against Sunderland. This mosaic demonstration was repeated before a match against West Ham United in the 2008–2009 season, where the Kop stand formed a mosaic forming a "Free Michael Now" banner. The Shields campaign was subsequently criticised by the FA, who chose to take no action against the club for breaking FIFA rules on political protest.

Following the second appeal, the Bulgarian Supreme Court accused the UK and the campaign to free Shields of undermining the image of its judicial system during the trial by selective reporting of only part of the information...this aimed at compromising the Bulgarian court system by creating a wrong idea of whether Bulgaria is a state committed to the rule of law. This had been exemplified when on 18 April 2006 the incident was covered in the ITV documentary The Forgotten Fan. The documentary was criticised for showing bias toward Shields, and utilising selective reporting.