29 May 2008

Twenty-three years since Heysel tragedy

May 29 1985, and the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool was scheduled in Brussels. It should have been a celebration, yet it became a tragedy even before kick-off: the English hooligans charged against a sector where there were mostly just families; this made the people run away and crowd Sector Z of the Heysel stadium. This being an old structure, it collapsed, dragging the people down with it. Thirty nine of them, mostly Juventus fans, died that night.
«The memory of that tragedy is still with us all – Chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli remarked – and it is a warning to keep living football with a more serene attitude and adhering to loyalty values in sport»

«Every year we remember the victims with a youth tournament held here, near Arezzo» Otello Lorentini, the President of the “Roberto Lorentini e Giusy Conti” Permanent Committee Against Violence in Sport, explained, «and we join in the pain of all the families that lost loved ones on that night». And Juventus too, alongside all the fans, are deeply moved in commemorating the Heysel victims, twenty-three years on.