The FA "steered clear of anything to do with safety" until after the Hillsborough disaster, the inquests have been told

The Football Association "steered clear of anything to do with safety" until after the Hillsborough disaster, the inquests have been told.The jury heard evidence from Adrian Titcombe, who was head of competitions and regulations between 1982 and 1993 and took on responsibility for crowd safety and security in the wake of the tragedy.The witness told the jury: "If there were reports of say injuries due to, I use the word loosely, crushing, then we regarded that as outside our remit. If it was due to people fighting then action was taken against the clubs in question."I have to assume that we assumed that there were other statutory bodies who had responsibility for matters relating to ground safety," he said.

Patrick Roche, representing some of the bereaved families, suggested the FA Cup was a "lucrative cash cow."

"Cash cow is a somewhat emotive word. The FA uses its revenue to fund football throughout the country," replied the witness.

The court heard the net profit from the 1989 semi-final match was £265,000, about £570,000 in today's money. The barrister said more money was made from television rights.

"Despite that, you made it very clear that the FA took no responsibility for the safety of spectators at all," he said."That’s correct," Mr Titcombe replied.

The inquests heard the FA did not hold copies of safety certificates.

The witness said: "We were satisfied, rightly or wrongly, that other bodies were better qualified to do that than ourselves: the local authority, the certifying authority, it was within their remit to do that. We certainly didn't have the expertise and I suspect the FA doesn’t currently have the expertise, to involve itself in practical matters of ground safety."