Top 5 Tuesday: The Deadliest Football Matches
The Deadliest Football Matches
This one wasn't easy to write, but it is a part of football history that must be remembered so we become cautious of it happening again. Sometimes football shows its ugly side. The downside of passion, freak accidents, hooligans, die-hard fans, and football extremism have often led to football casualties, and in cases, we will today, death.
Note:
Salvador vs Honduras will not be mentioned in this post as the full story behind it needs its own post. As well as a certain match in the Egyptian League between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry, as details are still not clear about what exactly happened.
5- Juventus Vs Liverpool - May 1985.
29 May 1985 at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium. English clubs were quite dominating in Europe during that period, however, the hooligans' phenomena have started to spread as well. In this case, it lead to what is known as the Heysel Stadium disaster.
Some English hooligans violently removed the fence between them and Juventus supporters and tried to attack Juventus supporters. Some fans got scared and tried to back down into the terraces and walls, the latter ended up collapsing, and some people were crushed before it did. The casualties of this disaster were 39 Juventus supporters as well as 200 injured.
Making the matter worst, the disaster occurred an hour before the match. However, it didn't stop it from carrying through as planned. Juventus won the match 1-0, however, both teams' players say they were shocked by the number of casualties. Claiming that they wouldn't have gone through with the match. Players like Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish said that while they were aware of the commission, they didn't know what exactly happened.
There was criticism surrounding Juventus celebrating the title win afterward as people had lost their lives, but that was justified as being the only way to stop things from escalating by keeping Juventus supporters in the stadium to watch the crowning as Liverpool supporters leave.
After that disaster UEFA has had enough with English hooligans and decided to ban English clubs from playing in Europe for 5 years, as well put on trial some Liverpool supporters as well as some officials and police personalities.
4- Bradford City Vs Lincoln City, May 1985
11 May 1985, less than three weeks before the Heysel Stadium disaster. In the third division of the English League (EFL League Two currently). Smoking was allowed at stadiums during those days. A fan tried to put out a cigarette but unfortunately, it ended up on rubbish in between the wooden seats, igniting them and setting fire to an entire section.
The reft ended the match at 42nd minute upon seeing the flames, but it was too late. That fan's cigarette was a regrettable one as it resulted in the death of 56 deaths and 265 non-fatal injuries. Witnesses said that the flames grew in lightning speed, and between shoving, the inability to breathe, and chaos, all these lives were lost that day.
The aftermath of that match resulted in two things A) Picking non-flammable materials to make the seats, and B) Reinforcing and increasing the availability of fire extinguishing tools.
3- Guatemala Vs Costa Rica - October 1996
While the cigarette was accidental, the lead-up to this one was. Greed led to a well-known disaster in Guatemala and it is impossible for them to forget. On October 16, 1996, Guatemala hosted Costa Rica in the World Cup qualifiers in Estadio Nacional Doroteo Guamuch Flores, known at the time as Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores. A stadium that could seat 26,000 people.
However, the number of tickets on sale was over 60,000 tickets, more than double the available seats. Many people have counterfeited tickets for sale. The security had attempted to stop people who had tickets from going in as the stadium had reached its maximum capacity. The President of Guatemala saw people destroying properties and sought to stop the match. But, it was too late.
Over 83 people lost their lives that day, most of them were children as a result of a Stampede. Horacio Cordero, Guatemala's manager at the time said
“What does football matter now?”
A true statement echoing the disaster.
2- Peru Vs Argentina - May 1964
A similar disaster occurred, known as the "Lima football disaster" on 24 May 1964 in a qualification match for the Tokyo Olympics' football tournament later that same year. The match was hosted in Peru's capital Lima in Estadio Nacional stadium.
At the time, Peru's players were amateurs. But, still had a good showing in the previous Olympics. Peru needed a win to qualify for the Olympics.
Argentina scored early in the match. 6 minutes before the end of the match, Peru scored the draw. However, the referee disallowed the goal. Some fans, believed to be part of gangs seeking to win people's approval, jumped the barricades to attack the ref. Others saw that as an incentive to follow.
The Peruvian police sought to control the crowd with tear gas and live bullets. Between the shooting and stampedes, 328 lost their lives, and 500 people were injured. Although, it is believed that the number of casualties is a lot higher but was hidden by a corrupt Peruvian regime at the time.
1- Liverpool Vs Nottingham Forest - 1989
On 15 April 1989, 4 years after the Heysel Stadium disaster, a disaster occurred which has the longest legal battles in football history, as there are lawsuits and investigations that continue to happen as we speak. The Hillsborough disaster happened during a match that saw Liverpool take on Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final at the Hillsborough Stadium, a stadium that had the capacity for 35 thousand people, a small capacity for an FA Cup semi-final.
Liverpool supporters weren't stopped by that fact and let people go to avoid confrontations with the hooligans. There were too many people for what the stadium could house. Only 2 minutes into the match and parts of the stadium started falling apart.
In the first few hours, 97 people died, however deaths caused by the chaos continued, according to The Guardian there were people who took their own lives due to the disaster years later, collapsed marriages, alcoholism, and drug abuse. The latest of the victims was Andrew Devine, who was in a vegetative state for a long period, came out of it and communicated with a touch-sensitive pad. However, his injuries led to his death earlier this year.
The youngest of victims was Jon-Paul Gilhooley, a cousin of Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, whose death led Steven Gerrard to chase the football.
Until 2016, Liverpool fans were accused of being the cause of the disaster, described by the ugliest names such as drunks, hooligans, and barbarians. In 2016, Liverpool fans get an official ruling from the court citing the police as responsible for allowing the excessive number of fans to go in. Also, the health care sector for the delayed arrival of ambulances, as well as the stadium design that wasn't suited to host such high capacity.
That match was the straw that broke the camel's back and ended having steel barricades that are more harmful than useful in crucial situations. Also, lots of anti-hooligan personalities came out in the media to bury that phenomenon and clean stadiums out of these people. Also, it ended the idea of having standing fans at stadiums, no one without a seat can go into a football match.
It wasn't easy writing this list.
It was a rather heartbreaking list to write up and research. But, I believe it is important to remember how the wrong type of fans, greed, lack of preparedness, and negligence could lead to horrible results. Lessons to carry to the future.
Fortunately, the efforts of the authorities since that horrible day 1989 have meant that it's unlikely we'll see such a disater in the UK again. However, the incidents that occured at Wembley this summer during the Euro 2020 final still showed that we can't let our guard down where large scale events attract an influx of people sometimes without tickets!
Yeah, I think serves as a reminder that you can't let down your guard. Because it is really small details that led to such huge disasters.
many tragedies have happened at football matches over the years with some cover ups we never hear about. One in Russia back in the 1980's I think was one that would top many of these just on sheer numbers who died.
The Luzhniki disaster? If it is then I did consider putting it but I didn't see it fit to have "Honorable mentions" as I usually do in these kinds of posts. I have a very long list in my research for this, 20 from South America along. It took weeks to put it together. This piece kinda haunted me until I posted it.
It wasn't indeed and easy one to write. From the background work to the emotional part of writing the story itself. Well done.
I'm not too surprised that the majority of these disasters involved English fans. While they're so passionate about the game, they tend to not to draw the thin line between passion and hooliganism. We saw a trace of that in the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
Gladly, a lot of these kind of happenings have been stemmed due to improved stadium management and awareness.
Hopefully, we won't get to see anything like this in football again.
The Al-Ahly - Al-Masry incident stemmed from a longstanding rivalry.
That's not the part that I lack in detail. Just the parts about police trapping Al-Ahly fans inside as the riots were happening and other sketchy details.
The Euro 2020 incident is another lesson to take for the future that I hope people in charge would know how to deal with then.
Wow...shocking but a great share. It's extremely hard to fathom anything like this happening nowadays with all the rules and regulations in play
Yeah, they also as a background of those rules and regulations. I aimed to pick ones that are either indicative of surrounding events and regimes, also ones that are relevant today whether by causing changes in seats, regulations. The first one was also a big reason of the EPL, as we know it today, started.
One that is in the recent memory is of course the horrible Port Said Stadium riot in 2012. I'm sure you thought of adding it too but here is the Wikipedia link for those who are unfamiliar with what happened there.
Such tragedies every one of them with the game we love so much.
!CTP