Heysel Stadium disaster
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The Heysel Stadium disaster was an accident that occurred due to football hooliganism in which a retaining wall of the Heysel Stadium in Brussels collapsed on May 29 1985 during a football match between Liverpool F.C. from England and Juventus FC from Italy. 39 people were killed, mostly Italian Juventus fans. The match was the final of the 1985 European Cup tournament.
About an hour before the scheduled kick-off time, Liverpool fans breached a fence separating the two groups of supporters and charged. Juventus fans retreated, putting pressure on a dilapidated wall, which collapsed on top of them. The game was played despite the disaster. Liverpool were later banned from all European competitions for six years and all other English clubs were banned for five years.
Background
In May 1985 Liverpool were the premier football team in Europe, having been European Cup champions in four of the previous eight seasons. They had again reached the final, and were looking to defend the title that they won by defeating Roma the previous year. Again they would face Italian opposition. Juventus, for their part, were the reigning Cup Winners' Cup holders, and had a team comprising many of Italy's 1982 World Cup winning team, plus the mercurial Michel Platini of France, winner of the Ballon d'Or (awarded to European footballer of the year) in 1983, 1984 and 1985. These were the two finest teams in Europe.
Earlier, in January, Liverpool had visited Turin to play Juventus in the European Super Cup. Juve won the game 2–0. There should have been a second match at Anfield, but Liverpool couldn't find time in their schedule for the return leg, and so it was postponed until after Heysel, and was never played.
1984 - Liverpool vs. Roma
The previous year against Roma the final had coincidently taken place at Roma's Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Liverpool won the cup on penalties. After the match, gangs of Roma fans assaulted Liverpool supporters who were making their way back to their hotels. Many fans were attacked, stabbed and slashed. The appalled Roman press reported that this was not simply a reaction to the defeat, but that Roma fans had stowed weapons in their cars before the game, and had rushed to get them upon the final whistle .
Liverpool's local radio station Radio City also experienced this violence first hand. Many Liverpool supporters were attacked by gangs of Roma fans when they approached the local bus station. Drivers refused to take Liverpool fans on their buses in case they were attacked and many English fans who had been refused travel, sought refuge in the British Embassy. Eventually, a volunteer driver agreed to take Liverpool fans on a bus through the city, dropping people off at their respective hotels. Police outriders were required at the front and rear of the bus to protect it. Radio City had a news crew on the bus and interviewed fans who had been stabbed and beaten. None of this violence received any news coverage in the UK national press, but did in Italy. The only UK paper to publicise this violence was the local Liverpool daily paper The Liverpool Echo, under the headline "The Ecstasy and the Agony".
It has been claimed that after the events of Rome 1984, English hooligans put aside their differences for when Liverpool met Juventus in the 1985 final, and sought to exact revenge. These claims included rumours that many of the most notorious English hooligan firms were there, including MIGS from Luton, Bushwackers from Millwall, the ICF from West Ham and the Gremlins from Newcastle. It is now generally accepted that these were indeed just rumours .
May 29, 1985
Built in 1930, the Heysel Stadium was outdated and, in retrospect, not a suitable venue for a match such as the European Cup Final. Large parts of the stadium were crumbling. Even at the time many felt the ground was patently unsafe for football, with Liverpool Chief Executive Peter Robinson urging UEFA to use another venue .The stadium was crammed with 58–60,000 supporters, with more than 25,000 for each team. The two ends behind the goals comprised all-standing terraces, each end split into three zones. The Juventus end was O, N and M. At the other end Liverpool were allocated X and Y, with the Z section (to one side) being reserved for neutral Belgian fans. The idea of this large neutral area was opposed by both Liverpool and Juventus , as it would provide an opportunity for fans of both clubs to obtain tickets from agencies or from ticket touts outside the ground and thus create a dangerous mix of fans.
At the time Brussels had a large Italian community, and many expatriate Juventus fans bought the section Z tickets . Added to this, many tickets were bought up and sold by travel agents, mainly to Juventus fans. A small percentage of the tickets ended up in the hands of Liverpool fans.
To add to the tension, the Liverpool X and Y sections were overcrowded after many fans managed to get in without tickets, and most of the fans had been drinking all day . The situation, especially taking into account the events of 1984, was volatile.
Confrontation
At approximately 7pm local time, an hour before kick-off, the trouble started . The Liverpool and Juventus supporters in sections Y and Z stood merely yards apart. The boundary between the two was marked by temporary chicken-wire fencing and a central thinly-policed no-man's land . It is unclear who started throwing missiles; some reports say Juventus fans, but most say Liverpool fans. Either way missiles began to be exchanged across the divide. One often-quoted source of the missiles was the crumbling stadium itself, fans could literally pick up stones from the terraces beneath them.
As kick-off approached, the throwing became more intense. A group of Liverpool fans charged across the terraces, through and over the wire fence into section Z causing the Juventus fans to retreat. The terrified fans had no way out, panicking they stampeded into the side perimeter wall, near to the corner flag. The ageing wall could not withstand the pressure and collapsed.
It was at this point that the majority of the deaths occurred - 39 people died, and a further 600 were injured . Bodies were carried away on sections of iron fencing and laid in piles outside, covered with giant football flags. As police and medical helicopters flew in, the down-draught blew away the modest coverings. The situation was chaotic.
What then followed were two full hours of rioting at the Juventus end of the stadium, fully recorded and documented by the continuing pan-European TV coverage of the event. Juventus fans ripped up pieces of concrete and tore down the perimeter fences at their end of the stadium, before advancing down the stadium running track towards the Liverpool supporters seeking confrontation, with only police intervention stopping their advance.
The Juventus fans fought the police with rocks, bottles and missiles for two hours. At one point a Juventus supporter is clearly seen on the TV pictures to fire a handgun at the police (later verified as being a starting pistol). Another spectator was seen being beaten by the police before a Juve fan threw a chunk of concrete which hit him squarely on the back of the head. Later, a group of Juventus supporters on the terraces unfurled a banner which read "Reds Animals". When the game eventually kicked off, riot police were still fighting a pitched battle with Juventus supporters, and maintained their presence around the entire pitch for the duration of the game.
39 victims
39 football fans died in the tragedy, 32 Italian fans of Juventus FC, 4 Belgians, 2 French and an Irishman.
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Juventus 1-0 Liverpool
Despite the scale of the disaster, it was felt that abandoning the game would have risked inciting further trouble, and the match eventually kicked off after the captains of both sides spoke to the crowd and appealed for calm. Although accounts vary, it appears that players from both teams were aware that there had been deaths, but not how many casualties there were. Indeed, some supporters have said that it wasn't until after the game that they found out that people had died.Juventus won 1–0 with a penalty scored by Michel Platini, prompting passionate celebrations from the players and fans, although TV replays clearly showed that the foul which led to the penalty happened outside the area. Later in the 2nd half, Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan appeared to be brought down inside the penalty area, but the referee denied Liverpool a spot kick. There is some speculation that the referee was told to try to let Juventus win the game, in order to lessen the chance of any more potential unrest amongst supporters.
At the end of the game, the Juventus players celebrated their victory in the middle of the pitch, clearly unaware of the extent of the tragedy that had taken place in the corner of the stadium.
Aftermath
Officially the entire blame for the tragedy was laid on the fans of Liverpool FC. On May 30 official UEFA observer Gunter Schneider said "Only the English fans were responsible. Of that there is no doubt." UEFA, the organizer of the event, the owners of Heysel Stadium and the Belgian police were never investigated for culpability. There was no official inquiry into the causes of the disaster .
May 31 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put pressure upon the FA to withdraw English clubs from European competition , and then two days later UEFA banned English clubs for "an indeterminate period of time". On June 6 FIFA extended the ban to all worldwide matches, but this was modified one week later to allow friendly matches to take place. The ban did not apply to the English national team. The ban was finally set to be ten years exclusion for Liverpool and all other English clubs were banned for five years. Liverpool in the end only served six years of the ten year ban.
The British police untertook a thorough investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators. 17 minutes of film and many still photographs were examined. TV Eye produced an hour-long programme featuring the footage and the British press also published the photographs.
There were 27 arrests on suspicion of manslaughter – the only extraditable offence applicable to events at Heysel. Approximately 60 per cent were from Liverpool and the remainder from places that ranged from Aberdeen to Ipswich. Some of these people had previous convictions for football related violence. In 1989, after a 5-month trial in Belgium, fourteen Liverpool fans were given 3-year sentences for involuntary manslaughter . Half the terms were suspended and none served their sentences.
Heysel Stadium continued to be used for hosting athletics for almost 10 years, but no further football matches took place in the old stadium. In 1995 the stadium was demolished and the King Baudouin Stadium built on the site. In 1996 the new stadium welcomed the return of football to Heysel in the form of a friendly match between Belgium and Germany. It then hosted a major European final on May 8 1996 when Paris Saint-Germain defeated Rapid Vienna 1–0 to win the Cup Winners Cup. No formal commemoration has ever been placed at the site.
Players' and supporters' reactions
Several Juventus players and supporters have expressed unhappiness with the way Juventus dealt with the tragedy, in that they displayed the trophy in their trophy cabinet straight after the game, and didn't do enough to help the bereaved families, for example, not having any kind of memorial to the supporters who died. Some Juventus players felt that they couldn't really count this as a European Cup victory, partly from the tragic events of the night, and from the dubious penalty decision which won them the game.Some Liverpool players and supporters feel that it was wrong to entirely apportion the blame for the disaster on Liverpool supporters, and that other factors, such as the ticketing arrangements and inadequate policing, contributed to the events. The fact that there was never an official inquiry also raised eyebrows.
Consequences for football in England
The ban from European competition undoubtedly had a profound effect on the game in England. Before the 5-year ban English clubs had been dominant in European competition with 6 consecutive European cup victories, 1977–1982, and again in 1984. Since the ban ended in 1990 English teams have only won the trophy twice.After Heysel English clubs began to impose stricter rules intended to make it easier to prevent trouble-makers from attending games. However the main reforms did not come until after the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people died in 1989.
An example of the new rules is that fans are now often required to become members of clubs in order to apply for game tickets, and closed-circuit cameras have been installed throughout stadiums. Fans who misbehave can have their tickets revoked and be legally barred from attending games at any English stadium.
Commemorations
During Euro 2000, all the members of the Italian team left flowers on the site, in honour to the dead fans of Juventus.
Juventus and Liverpool were drawn together in the quarter-finals of the 2005 Champions League. This match took place 20 years after the tragedy and was the first time the clubs faced each other since Heysel. Before the first leg at Anfield Liverpool fans held up placards to form a banner saying "amicizia" ("friendship" in Italian). Many Juventus fans applauded the gesture, but a significant number turned their backs . The second leg in Italy was played against a backdrop of crowd trouble as Juventus fans clashed with police, attacked Liverpool supporters and threw missiles . Liverpool won the tie 2-1 with goals by Sami Hyypiä and Luis García in the first leg. The second leg, played in Turin, ended goalless.
References in pop culture
- The disaster was the subject of a song titled "38" by Revolting Cocks.
- The memoir Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby also makes reference to the disaster.
- Composer Michael Nyman made a song called "Memorial" which was originally part of a larger work of the same name written in 1985 in memory of the Juventus fans who died at Heysel Stadium.
See also
References
External links
- [Heysel Tragedy article on LFC Online]
- [BBC Sports columnist Alan Hansen - Reds tie evokes Heysel memories]
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