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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Deborah Glass, Commission Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) talks during a briefing on its review of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report in central London, Friday Oct. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/PA, Anthony Devlin) 

Britain's police watchdog says it will undertake the biggest-ever investigation into police actions over a 1989 stadium disaster that left 96 soccer fans dead.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said Friday that a large number of serving or retired officers would be investigated over what happened on that day, and the alleged coverup that followed.

A government-appointed panel recently confirmed that failures by police led directly to the disaster that saw dozens crushed to death at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium and that some injured fans were denied medical treatment that could have saved their lives.