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The Liverpool Way

Remember a Day: Heysel

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HeyselOn 29th May 1985, 60,000 supporters made their way to Heysel Stadium Northwest Brussels for the European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool. The supporters had been drinking for most of the day at the bars in the Belgian capital and there was a risk that trouble was going to break out between the two sets of fans sooner or later. At 7pm, local time, an hour before the start of the match, trouble did start to kick off. After fans began merely chanting, waving flags and firing off fireworks, it all became much more violent.

Section Z was the notorious area of conflict. It was supposed to be reserved for neutral Belgium fans but ticket touts and the large Italian community in Belgium meant that many of the tickets were taken up by Juventus supporters. Italian’s in section Z and Liverpool fans in section Y were in extremely close proximity with only a weak chainlink fence between them and a small police presence, due to the lack of foresight that their would be Juve fans in the neutral zone.

Stones and missiles were exchanged between fans in Section Z and Y, before Liverpool fans stormed the perimeter fence and invaded the neutral section zone, making the Juventus fans retreat towards the Juventus side of the stadium. Many tried to escape over a perimeter wall but the wall collapsed under pressure from the fleeing fans. 39 supporters died in the collapse and the stampede that ensued, with many hundreds also injured. The retaining wall crushed those seated nearest to it and many others were hurt in the subsequent panic to escape the collapse. The stadium was over 55 years old and parts of the stands were crumbling and both this fact, and the lack of police presence for crowd control were blamed for the deaths. In  in retaliation, Juventus fans tried to storm Liverpool’s end of the ground, but police managed to prevent the advance.

Unrest continued for many hours but the game still went ahead, despite protestations from both managers. With little focus on the football, the players played out a drab game, and Juventus won 1-0. Thoughts were with those that had died on that fateful day and English clubs were subsequently banned from European competitions for five years, with Liverpool not allowed to play for an additional year before they were allowed back in.

The Heysel stadium itself, built in 1930, was quickly demolished after the disaster and replaced by the all-seater Stade Roi Baudouin, which has never held a club football match. The only relic of the old venue is the reconditioned gateway near the main entrance to the stadium, the only reminder of the horror that cost so many lives.

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