LONDON — Decades after the deadliest stadium disaster in English soccer history, British prosecutors charged six people on Wednesday, including four former senior police officials, in the deaths of 96 people crushed and trampled to death at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield in 1989.

The catastrophe transformed how the sport is viewed in the country, and the decision is a long-awaited vindication for the families of the victims, including 37 teenagers, who were fatally crushed or trampled.

In April 2016, a two-year inquest found that the fans had been “unlawfully killed” and cited errors or omissions by the police in planning and executing security for the match on April 15, 1989. In particular, it faulted the actions of commanding officers. The inquest left prosecutors to decide whether to file criminal charges, and on Wednesday, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would.

David Duckenfield, the match commander for the South Yorkshire Police on the day of the tragedy, will face manslaughter charges. Five other men also face charges: Graham Henry Mackrell, a former secretary of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, which operates Hillsborough Stadium; Peter Metcalf, a lawyer who represented the South Yorkshire Police; and three other former high-ranking police officers — Norman Bettison, Donald Denton and Alan Foster.