🕯️ Heysel, in memoriam: 40 years since a tragedy that changed football | OneFootball

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

History will remember May 29, 1985, as one of the darkest and saddest days for European football. And it's that, on this day 40 years ago, this sport experienced one of the worst tragedies that occurred in a football stadium. From this day on, the name of the Brussels neighborhood of Heysel was etched as one of the great blots on the dark history of this sport.

A tragedy that occurred in the prologue of what was supposed to be a great celebration: the final of the European Cup that year between Liverpool and Juventus. Two giants of European football measuring their supremacy for the most prized title on the continent. But what was supposed to be a day of joy and good football turned into a bloodbath and pain for the fans.

Rome, the germ of a tragedy

Obviously, what happened at the Heysel stadium cannot be explained without there being a suitable breeding ground beforehand. And that's what we find in the growth of the 'hooligan' movement and more specifically in a date: the European Cup final played by Liverpool and Roma just a year earlier, in 1984, in the Italian capital.

📸 DOMINIQUE FAGET

Liverpool's victory was not taken well by the most radical Roma fans, who decided to set up an ambush for the 'Reds' fans as they left the Stadio Olimpico. Violence, revenge, pending accounts... The cocktail already had all the ingredients of a highly dangerous mixture. And, to make matters worse, the English press dedicated themselves to stirring up the situation even more in the days leading up to the match in Brussels.

A stadium turned into a mousetrap

With an already heated atmosphere in the run-up, the date and place of the match arrived, May 29, 1985 at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, a venue that had hardly undergone any structural modifications since its inauguration in 1930. UEFA, anticipating possible disorders, had separated the fans in both ends of the stadium and had enabled a neutral zone for spectators. However, the fuse was already lit for a tragedy.

📸 DOMINIQUE FAGET

In the run-up to the match, Liverpool fans began throwing glass bottles and chasing Juventus fans present in that "neutral" zone. A chase that ended with the Bianconeri fans trapped between the fences and crushed by a human tide that could not be controlled by the Belgian authorities.

The pre-match turned into a pitched battle. Fans of one team and another jumping into rival fan zones to attack them, overcrowding in the face of the avalanche of fans who came without tickets, a large majority of fans showing signs of drunkenness... What was supposed to be the great celebration of European football ended with 39 deaths and images that shamed the entire public opinion.

The 'show' continued

In the face of such a situation, what mattered least was playing a football match. However, UEFA did not give in to the situation of the moment and went ahead with the event, forcing the players to play the match. An hour and a half later, with ambulances still assisting the injured and with corpses visible in several areas of the stadium, Liverpool and Juventus took to the field to play the match.

📸 DOMINIQUE FAGET - AFP or licensors

A penalty goal by Michel Platini gave the victory to the Italians. Juve took their first European Cup in history amidst an almost apocalyptic landscape. The celebrations took a backseat. What happened in Heysel left a legacy for European football, which took measures to prevent such events.

English punishment

After the tragedy, UEFA dictated new orders to prevent events like the one experienced in Heysel from happening again. In addition to new technical specifications for stadiums and security measures for fans, the governing body of European football took a tough measure against English teams: banned from European competitions until 1990. Something that for English football meant a hard blow to its image and income.

Liverpool was banned until 1995, although the 'Reds' later saw their sanction reduced to 1991. But the 'Reds' themselves would experience a similar tragedy four years later: Hillsborough. 96 fans of the club died in a stampede that is remembered today as the worst tragedy of the Mersey club. An event that forced the English government to take measures once and for all to guarantee safety in stadiums.

The memory of Heysel lives on

Mentioning Heysel is mentioning one of the darkest episodes in the history of European football. And today, the memory of that tragedy is still very present for fans. An example of this was what happened in Saint-Denis, in the 2022 Champions League final. The poor control and lack of security at the entrances caused many Liverpool and Real Madrid fans to experience panic scenes.

📸 MARCO BERTORELLO

The memory of the deceased is also present in Juventus de Turin. The fans of the Vecchia Signora, as well as their management, always have the fans who died in Brussels in 1985 present. Fans who were supposed to have returned home after seeing and experiencing a celebration like a European Cup final.

📸 Bongarts - Getty Images