On May 29, 1985, I remember feeling the excitement pumping through my veins all day at school. Tonight I was going to watch the biggest football game of the year, Juventus versus Liverpool in the European Champion Clubs’ Cup as we then called it.
There was no Euro nor World Cup in 1985, nope, this was going to be the highlight of my football year.
Western Europe is wonderful at this time of the year, we have daylight until 10.30pm, balmy late-spring evenings are expected, although not de rigueur, plus we kids know the long summer break is just around the corner: no school until September.
To make things even better every week we get European cup finals on Wednesdays, the UEFA Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and the big one, the European Champion Clubs’ Cup. Best time of the year all right.
1985 was a particular year for us. France had just won their first major trophy the year before, the Euro 1984 that we, the French, organised. Michel Platini had become the idol of a whole nation scoring nine goals in five matches. Needless to say, most of us kids had also fallen in love with Juventus where he had been playing since 1982-83. We loved football, we loved Platini and we were going to love this May 29, 1985.
About an hour before the game, kick-off was at 8.30pm if I remember well, we started getting news out of Brussels. Incidents had occurred outside the stadium, some supporters who didn’t have tickets had tried to get in. Not much info but enough for us to speculate: English hooligans had to be responsible, as for us continentals hooliganism was a British-only problem in the mid-1980s.
At 8pm the national news started and straight away we were in Brussels which was unusual as football like every other sport in France rarely opens the news, politics do. Our commentators started talking about ‘some injured’, mostly Italians. The kid that I was didn’t think much of that: some ‘ritals‘ had probably been beaten up by some anglos, sad but what can you do.
Soon enough we started getting some footage of what was happening, what had happened and immediately the penny dropped: no brawls nor punches. No, what we saw was worse, much worse. Thousands of spectators were fighting for their lives in the two ends behind the goals.
In the 1980s, terraces behind goals were all standing and often packed on big occasions. In a big 60,000 stadium like the Heysel, we probably had 10,000 standing spectators behind each goals, maybe more. ‘Injured’ became ‘possible deaths’, then commentators acknowledged that some had probably died. By 8.30pm we knew it was a tragedy although the TV broadcaster chose not to show the worst of what was happening, and rightly so.
Were we going to play? Yes, we were. Captains of both teams talked to the crowd, asking for everyone to stay calm and enjoy the night. At home, I almost believed them and yes, I got in match mode, barracked for Platini and Juve although I and many of my compatriots didn’t really understand Platini’s goal celebration.
Juve won 1-0. Thirty-nine people had died. This was the worst football night I had ever witnessed and still is, 30 years on.
cm
Guest
An article from 2005 about football in the UK at the time of Heysel http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1196-may-2015/12473-archive-heysel-and-english-football-s-terminal-decline
SM
Guest
Thank you for writing this article, Nick
cm
Guest
Yes... in any case horrible no matter the cause.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
I dont really know cm to be honest. At first the euro media did blame liverpool hooligans but it was mostly because it had to be the brits who were the instigators. Asnyou said heysel was an old stadium and when people started to panick they had no way to escape, in a similar way to what happened at Hillsborough. Before the match they were some scuffles in Brussels city bjt to my knowledge it wasnt directly related to the tragedy itself. What was clear and what made things worse in our minds is that the people who perished were mostly neutrals, I mean belgian fans with italian background. It was not a hooligan vs hooligan battle and I think its what made people so angry. I havent really revisited the incident since but i will always remember the photos of people 'turning blue' against the fence.
cm
Guest
How much of that is down to the "hooligan" side to the story nick? Nick Hornby in his book fever pitch I seem to remember talking about heysel and saying how to him, it seemed bizarre that it had been caused by people "running" at the ends, which was very common across the UK. And how the Belgium police and the crowd didn't know what was happening (without excusing it of course). how much focus was there on the state of the ground?
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Thanks svb. For many reasons i think Hillsborough didn't have the same impact on the continent than heysel had. In the 80s english football was very different to what it is now and most players were brits. As you said the serie A was the one attracting the big names so Hillsborough felt more like a pom issue. Heysel was the pinacle of the year, right in the middle of europe and involved one of us continentals against brits. I remember that the already strong anti english vibe skyrocketed after heysel. That was quitea night indeed a night that changed football forever I reckon.
cm
Guest
Yes thanks nick.
SVB
Guest
Cheers for the article nos. Yes, I think Heysel and Hillsborough were two of the biggest football tradegies in the modern age. I know the English were suspended from Europe for a long time after this disaster. Also Serie A was attracting the best players in the world around this time. How things have changed.