The saga of Steve Cohen and World Soccer Daily reached its conclusion in the summer of 2009 when the show aired its final broadcast. The collapse came after a sustained campaign by Liverpool supporters’ groups, furious at Cohen’s repeated and inflammatory comments about the Hillsborough disaster. What began with anger and boycotts soon escalated into allegations of anti-Semitism, FBI involvement, and bitter exchanges that dragged the programme into irreparable disrepute.
The fallout from Hillsborough remarks
Cohen’s apology was half-hearted at best—opening with “Let’s put this crap to bed.” Rather than calming tensions, he doubled down, claiming that a third of the emails he received from Liverpool supporters contained anti-Semitic abuse. He insisted these had been handed to the FBI, though no evidence ever emerged. When pressed to substantiate his assertion that the abuse had come from official supporters’ groups, Cohen produced nothing.
A fractured mediation
With sponsors beginning to withdraw—among them FourFourTwo magazine, Heineken, FADO Irish pubs, and RuffNeck Scarves—Cohen sought negotiation. American Liverpool fans set three clear conditions: evidence of the alleged sender’s membership, proof of institutional complicity, and FBI case references. Into this fraught environment stepped Mark Sawyer of UCLA, ostensibly as a mediator. Yet his partial remarks on the Soccer Universe site, including exaggerating “gets the bullet” as a death threat and suggesting Liverpool’s owners were fanning the flames, hardly reassured the protesting groups.
Meanwhile, activists such as Antony Ananins reported receiving their own threats and even a death threat, which they referred to the FBI with case details made public. The sense of menace and farce intermingled, but the weight of sponsor withdrawals meant World Soccer Daily’s days were numbered.
A bitter end
The show’s final act left a sour taste. Its closing website message published the email addresses of those who had campaigned against Cohen, a transparent attempt to direct further abuse their way. Everton site Toffeeweb even published a clumsy defence of Cohen, branding the programme “a great show,” but it rang hollow. The essential truth remained: without Cohen’s remarks on Hillsborough, there would have been no boycott, no collapse, and no disgraceful finale.
Aftermath
For Liverpool supporters, the end of World Soccer Daily was vindication after months of persistence. For American soccer fans more broadly, it was a chance to move on from a toxic figure whose belligerence had damaged trust. Cohen’s downfall was of his own making, and the game’s growing following in the United States deserved better than the rancour he left behind.