Heysel Stadium disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster was a human stampede that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by Liverpool fans were pressed against a collapsing wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between the Italian and English clubs. 39 people—mostly Italians and Juventus fans—were killed and 600 were injured in the confrontation.
Approximately an hour before the Juventus–Liverpool final was due to kick off, Liverpool supporters charged at Juventus fans and breached a fence that was separating them from a "neutral area." The cause of the rampage is disputed: Many accounts attribute blame to the Italian fans for sparking the violence, but this claim is contested by other eye-witnesses and has been criticized for being unsubstantiated. Juventus fans ran back on the terraces and away from the threat into a concrete retaining wall. Fans already standing near the wall were crushed; eventually the wall collapsed, allowing others to escape. Many people climbed over to safety, but many others died or were badly injured. The game was played despite the disaster, with Juventus winning 1–0.
The tragedy resulted in all English football clubs being placed under an indefinite ban by UEFA from all European competitions, with Liverpool being excluded for an additional three years, later reduced to one, and 14 Liverpool fans found guilty of manslaughter and each sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The disaster was later described as "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions".
Events leading up to the disaster
In May 1985, Liverpool were the defending European Champions' Cup winners, having won the competition after defeating Roma in the penalty shootout in the final of the previous season. Again they would face Italian opposition, Juventus, who had won, unbeaten, the 1983–84 Cup Winners' Cup. Juventus had a team consisting of many of Italy's 1982 FIFA World Cup winning team—who played for Juventus for many years—and their playmaker Michel Platini was considered the best footballer in Europe, being named Footballer of The Year by France Football magazine for the second year in a row in December 1984. Both teams were placed in the two first positions in the UEFA club ranking at the end of the last season and were regarded by the specialist press as the best two sides on the continent at the time. Both teams had contested the 1984 European Super Cup four months before, finishing with victory for the Italian side by 2–0.Despite its status as Belgium's national stadium, Heysel was in a poor state of repair by the time of the 1985 European Final. The 55-year-old stadium had not been sufficiently maintained for several years, and large parts of the stadium were literally crumbling. For example, the outer wall had been made of cinder block, and fans who did not have tickets were seen kicking holes in it to get in. In some areas of the stadium, there was only one turnstile, and some fans attending the game claimed they were never searched or asked for their tickets.
Liverpool players and fans later said that they were shocked at Heysel's abject condition, despite reports from Arsenal fans that the ground was a "dump" when Arsenal had played there a few years earlier. They were also surprised that Heysel was chosen despite its poor condition, especially since Barcelona's Camp Nou and Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid were both available. Juventus president Giampiero Boniperti and Liverpool CEO Peter Robinson urged UEFA to choose another venue, claiming that Heysel was not in any condition to host a European Final, especially a European Final involving two of the largest and most powerful clubs in Europe. However, UEFA refused to consider a move. It was later discovered that UEFA's inspection of the stadium lasted just thirty minutes.
The stadium was crammed with 58,000–60,000 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 and the Liverpool end was X, Y, and Z as deemed by the Belgian court after the disaster. However, the tickets for the Z section were reserved for neutral Belgian fans in addition to the rest of the stadium. This meant the Juventus fans had more sections than the Liverpool fans with the Z section nominally reserved for neutrals. The idea of the 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, Belgium already had a large Italian community, and many expatriate Juventus fans from Brussels, Liège and Charleroi fans bought the section Z tickets. Added to this, many tickets were bought up and sold by travel agents, mainly to Juventus fans. Reportedly, Liverpool fans were still smarting from being attacked by Roma ultras at the 1984 European Final, and being placed next to what amounted to another Juventus section heightened prematch tensions. A small percentage of the tickets ended up in the hands of Liverpool fans.
Confrontation
At approximately 7 p.m. local time, an hour before kick-off, the trouble started. The Liverpool and Juventus supporters in sections X and Z stood merely yards apart. The boundary between the two was marked by temporary chain link fencing and a central thinly policed no-man's land. Hooligans began to throw flares, bottles and stones across the divide. They were able to pick up stones from the crumbling terraces beneath them.As kick-off approached, the throwing became more intense. Several groups of Liverpool hooligans broke through the boundary between section X and Z, overpowered the police, and charged at the Juventus fans. The fans began to flee toward the perimeter wall of section Z. The wall could not withstand the force of the fleeing Juventus supporters and a lower portion collapsed.
In retaliation for the events in section Z, many Juventus fans rioted at their end of the stadium. They advanced down the stadium running track to help other Juventus supporters, but police intervention stopped the advance. A large group of Juventus fans fought the police with rocks, bottles, and stones for two hours. One Juventus fan was also seen firing a starting gun at Belgian police.
The match
Despite the scale of the disaster, UEFA officials, Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, Brussels Mayor Hervé Brouhon, and the city's police force felt that abandoning the match would have risked inciting further trouble and violence, and the match eventually kicked off after the captains of both sides spoke to the crowd and appealed for calm. The players took the field knowing that people had died. Years later, Liverpool captain Phil Neal said that in hindsight, it would have been "a better decision" to call off the game.Juventus won the match 1–0 thanks to a penalty scored by Michel Platini, awarded by Swiss referee Daina for a foul against Zbigniew Boniek.
At the end of the game the trophy was given in front of the stadium's Honor Stand by the confederation president Jacques Georges to Juventus captain Gaetano Scirea. Due to collective hysteria generated by the massive invasion of the pitch by journalists and fans at the end of the match, and the chants of fans of both teams in the stands, some Italian club players celebrated the title in the middle of the pitch among them and in front of their fans in the M section, while some Liverpool players applauded their fans between the X and Z sections, the stadium's section affected.
Liverpool players only realised the extent of the tragedy when they boarded the bus at their Brussels hotel to go to the airport and a crowd of Juventus supporters surrounded their bus. Police had to escort the bus out of the lot. The police allowed Liverpool's bus to drive directly on to the tarmac at Brussels Airport in hopes of avoiding a confrontation at the terminal.
Aftermath
Criminal proceedings
The blame for the incident was laid on the fans of Liverpool FC. On 30 May official UEFA observer Gunter Schneider said, "Only the Liverpool fans were responsible. Of that there is no doubt." UEFA, the organiser of the event, the owners of Heysel Stadium and the Belgian police were investigated for culpability. After an 18-month investigation, the dossier of top Belgian judge Marina Coppieters was finally published. It concluded that blame should rest solely with the Liverpool fans.The British police undertook a thorough investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators. Some 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.
A total of 34 people were arrested and questioned with 26 Liverpool fans being charged with manslaughter—the only extraditable offence applicable to events at Heysel. An extradition hearing in London in February–March 1987 ruled all 26 were to be extradited to stand trial in Belgium for the death of Juventus fan Mario Ronchi. In September 1987 they were extradited and formally charged with manslaughter applying to all 39 deaths and further charges of assault. Initially, all were held at a Belgian prison but over the subsequent months judges permitted their release as the start of the trial was further delayed.
The trial eventually began in October 1988, with three Belgians also standing trial for their role in the disaster: Albert Roosens, the head of the Belgian Football Association, for allowing tickets for the Liverpool section of the stadium to be sold to Juventus fans; and two police chiefs—Michel Kensier and Johann Mahieu—who were in charge of policing at the stadium that night. Two of the 26 Liverpool fans were in custody in Britain at the time and stood trial later. In April 1989, 14 fans were convicted and given three-year sentences, that were half suspended for five years, allowing them to return to the UK. One man who was acquitted was Ronnie Jepson, who would go on to make 414 appearances over a 13 year career in the English Football League. After Belgian prosecutors appealed the sentences as too lenient, an appeal took place in Spring 1990 that increased the sentences of 11 fans, with two having their sentences upheld and one being acquitted.
Stadium investigation
Gerry Clarkson, Deputy Chief of the London Fire Brigade, was sent by the British Government to report on the condition of the stadium. He concluded that the deaths were "...Attributable very, very largely to the appalling state of stadium." He discovered that the crush barriers were unable to contain the weight of the crowd and had the reinforcement in the concrete exposed, the wall's piers had been built the wrong way around and that there was a small building at the top of the terrace that contained long plastic tubing underneath. His report was never used in any inquiry for the disaster.English club ban
Pressure mounted to ban English clubs from European competition. On 31 May 1985, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked the FA to withdraw English clubs from European competition before they were banned, but two days later, UEFA banned English clubs for "an indeterminate period of time." On 6 June, FIFA extended this ban to all worldwide matches, but this was modified a week later to allow friendly matches outside of Europe to take place. In December 1985, FIFA announced that English clubs were also free to play friendly games in Europe, though the Belgian government banned any English clubs playing in their country.Though the English national team was not subjected to any bans, English club sides were banned indefinitely from European club competitions, with Liverpool being provisionally subject to a further three years suspension as well. In April 1990, following years of campaigning from the English football authorities, UEFA confirmed the reintroduction of English clubs into its competitions from the 1990–91 season onward; in April 1991 UEFA's Executive Committee voted to allow Liverpool back into European competition from the 1991–92 season onward, a year later than their compatriots, but two years earlier than initially foreseen. In the end, all English clubs served a five-year-ban, while Liverpool were excluded for six years.
According to former Liverpool striker Ian Rush, who signed with Juventus a year later, he saw pronounced improvement in the institutional relationships between both the clubs and their fans during his career in Italy.
England's UEFA Coefficient
Prior to the introduction of the ban, England were ranked first in the UEFA coefficient ranking due to the performance of English clubs in European competition in the previous five seasons. Throughout the ban, England's points were kept in the ranking until they would have naturally been replaced.The places vacated by English clubs in the UEFA Cup were reallocated to the best countries who would usually only have two spots in the competition—countries ranked between ninth and twenty-first. For the 1985–86 UEFA Cup, the Soviet Union, France, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands were granted an additional spot each, while in 1986–87, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, France, and East Germany were the recipients. The 1987–88 saw Portugal, Austria, and Sweden gain an additional place, with Sweden and Yugoslavia gaining the places for the 1988–89 competition. The final year of the English ban, 1989–90 saw Austria receive a spot, while a play-off round was played between a French and a Yugoslav side for the final space—due to the two countries having the same number of points in the ranking.
England was removed from the rankings in 1990 due to having no points. England did not return to the top of the coefficient rankings until 2008.
Banned clubs
The following clubs were denied entry to European competitions during this period:| Seasons | European Cup | European Cup Winners' Cup | UEFA Cup |
| 1985–86 | Everton | Manchester United | Liverpool Tottenham Hotspur Southampton Norwich City |
| 1986–87 | Liverpool | Everton | West Ham United Manchester United Sheffield Wednesday Oxford United |
| 1987–88 | Everton | Coventry City | Liverpool Tottenham Hotspur Arsenal Norwich City |
| 1988–89 | Liverpool | Wimbledon | Manchester United Nottingham Forest Everton Luton Town |
| 1989–90 | Arsenal | Liverpool | Nottingham Forest Norwich City Derby County Tottenham Hotspur |
| 1990–91 | Liverpool |
The number of places available to English clubs in the UEFA Cup would however have been reduced had English teams been eliminated early in the competition. By the time of the re-admittance of all English clubs except Liverpool in 1990–91, England was only granted one UEFA Cup entrant ; prior to the ban, they had four entry slots, a number not awarded to England again until the 1994–95 UEFA Cup.
Welsh clubs playing in the English league system, who could qualify for the European Cup Winners' Cup via the Welsh Cup, were unaffected by the ban. Bangor City, Wrexham, Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff City, and Swansea City all competed in the Cup Winners' Cup during the ban on English clubs, despite playing in the English league system.
In the meantime, many other clubs missed out on a place in the UEFA Cup due to the return of English clubs to European competitions only being gradual—in 1990, the league had no UEFA coefficient points used to calculate the number of teams, and even though Manchester United won the Cup Winners' Cup in the first season of returning in 1991, it took several more years for England to build up the points to the previous level, due to the coefficient being calculated over a five-year period and there being a one-year delay between the publication of the rankings and their impact on club allocation.
Liverpool's additional year of exclusion from Europe meant that there was no English representation in the 1990–91 European Cup, as they were 1989–90 Football League First Division champions. Due to the weak coefficient, Football League Cup winners Nottingham Forest also missed out on UEFA Cup places in 1990–91, along with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
The teams who missed out on the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, for the same reason were Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace and Leeds United. Arsenal and Manchester City were unable to take part for the 1992–93 competition. For 1993–94, Blackburn Rovers and Queens Park Rangers would have qualified. Leeds United missed out in 1994–95 and initially 1995–96, though they qualified for the latter via the new UEFA Fair Play ranking. England briefly returned to the top six of the coefficient rankings and regained its fourth berth in the UEFA Cup for the 1996–97 season, however Everton missed out on a Fair Play berth that season. England dropped out of the top six the following two seasons and returned to having three berths in the UEFA Cup. Though by this point England's coefficient was no longer directly affected by the ban due to it being outside of the five-year window, their coefficient continued to be affected by years of under-representation in Europe. As a result, Aston Villa missed out via their league position for 1997–98 and 1998–99 but qualified for both through Fair Play. England reached the top six of the coefficient ranking from 1999–2000, however expansion of the UEFA Champions League that season meant that top-ranked associations were given three berths for the UEFA Cup from then on, whilst associations ranked seventh and eighth were given four berths.
Impact on stadiums
After Heysel, English clubs began to impose stricter rules intended to make it easier to prevent troublemakers from attending domestic games, with legal provision to exclude troublemakers for three months introduced in 1986, and the Football Act 2000 introduced in 1991.Serious progress on legal banning orders preventing foreign travel to matches was arguably not made until the violence involving England fans at a match against Ireland on 15 February 1995 and violent scenes at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Rioting at UEFA Euro 2000 saw introduction of new legislation and wider use of police powers—by 2004, 2,000 banning orders were in place, compared to fewer than 100 before Euro 2000.
The main reforms to English stadiums came after the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 people died in 1989. All-seater stadiums became a requirement for clubs in the top two divisions while pitch-side fencing was removed and closed-circuit cameras have been installed. Fans who misbehave can have their tickets revoked and be legally barred from attending games at any English stadium.
The Heysel Stadium itself continued to be used for some matches of the Belgian national team until 1990, when UEFA banned Belgium from hosting a European final until at least 2000. In 1994, the stadium was almost completely rebuilt as the King Baudouin Stadium. On 28 August 1995 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 8 May 1996 when Paris Saint-Germain defeated Rapid Vienna 1–0 to win the Cup Winners' Cup.
Commemorations
In 1985, a memorial was presented to the victims at the Juventus headquarters in Piazza Crimea, Turin. The monument includes an epitaph written by Torinese journalist Giovanni Arpino. Since 2001 it has been situated in front of the current club's headquarters in Corso Galileo Ferraris.In 1986, the band Revolting Cocks, founded in part by Al Jourgensen of Ministry, released a song by the name of "38" on the album Big Sexy Land, in commemoration of the deaths.
A memorial service for those killed in the disaster was held before Liverpool's match with Arsenal at Anfield on 18 August 1985, their first fixture after the disaster. However, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, it was "drowned out" by chanting.
In 1991, a memorial monument for the 39 victims of the disaster, the only one on Italian soil, was inaugurated in Reggio Emilia, the hometown of the victim Claudio Zavaroni, in front of Stadio Mirabello: every year the committee "Per non dimenticare Heysel" holds a ceremony on 29 May with relatives of the victims, representatives of Juventus, survivors and various supporters clubs from various football clubs, including Inter Milan, AC Milan, Reggiana and Torino.
During Euro 2000, members of the Italian team left flowers on the site, in honour of the victims.
On 29 May 2005, a £140,000 sculpture was unveiled at the new Heysel stadium, to commemorate the disaster. The monument is a sundial designed by French artist Patrick Rimoux and includes Italian and Belgian stone and the poem "Funeral Blues" by Englishman W. H. Auden to symbolise the sorrow of the three countries. Thirty-nine lights shine, one for each who died that night.
Juventus and Liverpool were drawn together in the quarter-finals of the 2005 Champions League, their first meeting since Heysel. Before the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool fans held up placards to form a banner saying "amicizia". Many of the Juventus fans applauded the gesture, although a significant number chose to turn their backs on it. In the return leg in Turin, Juventus fans displayed banners reading Easy to speak, difficult to pardon: Murders and 15-4-89. Sheffield. God exists, the latter a reference to the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans were killed in a crush. A number of Liverpool fans were attacked in the city by Juventus ultras.
British composer Michael Nyman wrote a piece 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.
On Wednesday 26 May 2010, a permanent plaque was unveiled on the Centenary Stand at Anfield to honour the Juventus fans who died 25 years earlier. This plaque is one of two permanent memorials to be found at Anfield, along with one for the 96 fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
In May 2012, a Heysel Memorial was unveiled in the J-Museum at Turin. There is also a tribute to the disaster's victims in the club's Walk of Fame in front of the Juventus Stadium. Two years later Juventus' officials announced a memorial in the Continassa headquarter.
In February 2014, an exhibition in Turin was dedicated both to the Heysel tragedy and Superga air disaster. The name of the exhibition was "Settanta angeli in un unico cielo – Superga e Heysel tragedie sorelle" and gathered material from 4 May 1949 and 29 May 1985.
In May 2015, during a Serie A match between Juventus and Napoli at Turin, Juventus fans held up placards to form a banner saying "+39 Rispetto" including the names of the victims of the disaster.
On 12 November 2015 Italian Football Federation, Juventus' representatives led by Mariella Scirea and J-Museum president Paolo Garimberti and members of the Italian victims association held a ceremony in front of the Heysel monument in King Baudouin Stadium for the 30th anniversary of the event. The following day, FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio announced the retirement of Squadra Azzurra's number 39 shirt prior to the friendly match between Italy and Belgium.
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