Heysel 1985: The 'Darkest Night' in history of football

“The world was appalled. Turin went into mourning. Liverpool and their supporters were left with the stigma and the stain.” - Times football editor Tony Evans

Every coin has two sides, yin has yang and everything in life that is good, comes with a guarantee of something bad. This law applies universally to every individual, organization or sport. For football its horrifying alter ego is the hooliganism it creates. For long, it was a side that was hidden and never apparent to the world. But on a fateful night in Brussels, everything that was wrong about the game came to the fore.

The Hindsight

Heysel stadium in Brussels, as Arsenal fans and players had called it, was a ‘dump’. It was literally crumbling in places and many fans were able to kick through the wall and enter. There was unanimous surprise that Heysel was the venue for the final as everyone knew the abject condition it was in. Even more surprising was the fact that grounds like the Camp Nou and Santiago Bernebeau had been ignored despite availability.

Even more appalling was the blunder committed by the authorities. The Juventus and Liverpool fans were given opposite sides of the ground. The Juventus fans had complete control over the O, N and M blocks at one end of the ground while, the Liverpool fans had two and a half stands. However, they had full control over the X and Y sections. A large chunk of the ‘Z’ section was given for Belgian ‘neutral’ fans. This was protested against by both the clubs. Both the clubs knew that that most tickets would be sold on the black market and will be picked up by rival fans. Also they were aware keeping opposing fans so close together could not be anything but danger, and subsequent events proved them right.

The Incident

The match was the European Cup final between two powerhouses in European Football, with both teams at their peak, the general perception was that this was a tie that would stay in the memories of fans. While the perception was right, on-field matters had nothing to with it. Liverpool and Juventus fans had been very close and as passions ran high, little bursts of violence started to erupt.

An hour before the scheduled kick-off, members of the Liverpool hooligan group(The Urchins) and other Liverpool fans, started to move towards Juventus fans after throwing away a narrow chain link fencing. In fear the Juventus fans started to retreat backwards and tried to climb a wall to escape the oncoming Liverpudlians. But the wall was old and unstable, while many escaped this way, soon the wall collapsed. There was chaos all around as families were broken and panic reigned. 39 got killed and almost 700 people were injured. In retaliation Juventus fans to started to march towards the Liverpool fans but were stopped by the riot police.

For the sake of maintaining law and order, the match was started. Although both team captains addressed the crowd before kick-off, it had no effect. A group of Juventus fans was engaged in a constant battle with the police throughout the game. A host of eyewitness accounts confirmed the scale of the tragedy that had taken place. It was going to be a black day in the history of football and Liverpool Football Club. Although Juventus won 1-0 thanks to a Michel Platini penalty, no one cared about the on-field result.

‘”Heysel is a story of ‘incompetence, violence, cover-up, shame and lies,”‘ - Professor John Foot

The Fallout

The aftermath of the incident was predictably severe. Detailed enquiries were launched into the incident. After an exhaustive 18 month investigation chief investigator Marina Coppieters published her report. The report basically said that while Liverpool fans could be blamed for most of the events that night, they were not the sole culprits. UEFA were blamed for awarding the final to Heysel in the first place. Consequently police captain Johan Mahieu (who had never been in charge of a football game) was indicted and punished for involuntary manslaughter.

The Belgian authorities too received a fair stick, due to illogical ticketing arrangements. The number of policemen was not sufficient to keep thousands of fans in control, also the walkie-talkies policemen had, were battery-less. The part of the stadium where the incident took place, held 15000 people but should never have been open to the public. The reason was that the curved area near a corner flag was in a very dilapidated state. 27 were arrested on charges of manslaughter and 14 were given three year imprisonments for involuntary manslaughter. Also, English clubs were banned from taking part in European competitions for 5 years. However, that was not the saddest part.

The Aftermath

The saddest part was the loss of life. In the 39 who lost their life, 32 were Italian, 4 were Belgians, 2 were French while one of them belonged to Northern Ireland. Neither Juventus nor the Italian authorities took any follow up action and it appeared as if they just wanted to get over it.

Stadiums in England though started to improve drastically. Scared of a Heysel like disaster clubs began improving their stadiums and more stringent laws were brought in to curb hooliganism. The same cannot be said of Italy though. According to most, the situation in Italy, is not much different today than it was at the time of the Heysel disaster.

Another impact, less severe in terms of scale but important nevertheless, was on Liverpool’s neighbors Everton. Before the disaster and the subsequent ban on English teams the ‘Mersyside Derby’ was termed as the ‘friendly’ derby. But due to the ban on English clubs, most of Everton’s players left for greener pastures and broke up a team which looked destined for greatness. It is believed that this was the reason that this derby has become one of the fiercest in world football.

In 2005 Juventus and Liverpool were drawn together in the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League, this was the first time that these teams were facing each other after the disaster. The Liverpool fans created a mosaic saying ‘Amicizia’ which in Italian means friendship. While some Juventus fans appreciated the gesture, most of them turned their backs on it. When Liverpool visited Turin, banners saying ‘Easy to speak, difficult to pardon’ and ‘murders’ welcomed them. But perhaps the most chilling was, ‘15-4-89. Sheffield. God exists’. It was a reference to the 96 Liverpool fans who had lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster.

Also at Anfield a plaque was unveiled to honor the memory of those who had lost their lives in the disaster. A similar monument was unveiled at Heysel in the same year. The monument at Heysel has 39 lights, one for everyone who died.

The one thing Heysel taught football was what not to do when football was played. Security conditions improved across the board and so did the state of stadiums. Hooliganism was finally recognized for the evil it was, however, it still exists. When we watch matches today, we fail to understand how such events could have happened. But it is these tragedies that have made football what it is today. We must respect their victims in the same way as we respect the game.