Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has apologised to the families of the 96 Hillsborough victims, admitting that the sport's governing body has let them down since the disaster.

According to The Mirror, a personal letter from Dyke to the families states that the FA failed to show enough "compassion" for those who lost loved ones at the fateful FA Cup semi-final in 1989.

He wrote: "I feel very personally that as an organisation we have not demonstrated the empathy and compassion that all the victims' families could have rightly expected from the governing body of our national game over the past 25 years.

"The months ahead will inevitably be difficult for everyone involved as the full circumstances of the tragedy are examined in more detail than ever before.

"We fully support the work that is being undertaken."

Fresh inquests into the deaths of those 96 fans will get underway in Warrington on March 31.