The Hindu : Sport / Football : Remembering Heysel tragedy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 01, 2005

Sport

Sport - Football

Remembering Heysel tragedy

ROME, MARCH 31. Was it right to play? Should they have refused? How much did they know of what had happened in the stands?

Twenty years after the Heysel Stadium disaster, members of the victorious Juventus team give differing accounts of the night on which 39 fans, including 32 Italians, lost their lives.

Juve's former Polish midfielder, Zbigniew Boniek, says no matter what they say, everyone knew what had occurred in the fateful hours before the match went ahead.

``Don't believe anyone who tells you in all the confusion it was difficult to know exactly what was going on,'' he said.

``We knew 99.9 per cent of what had happened: the deaths, the dynamics of the situation, the explosive atmosphere weighing down on the stadium. I repeat: we knew it all.

``We didn't want to play. Neither did Liverpool. UEFA ordered us to. They said that if we didn't go out on the field the situation would get worse.

``Mobile phones didn't exist back then and many Juventus fans didn't know how many people had been killed in sector Z.

``A guy from UEFA said to me: 'If you refuse to play, they'll find out about it.'''

According to Boniek, the match was ``everything except a game of football'', but he shrugged off suggestions that Juventus should have given back the Cup out of respect to the victims.

``Give it back to whom? To UEFA? After the mess they made of organising the match? Let's not joke.''

Next week's game

As for next week's Champions League tie that pits Juventus against Liverpool for the first time in 20 years, Boniek said there was nothing to be gained from dwelling on the past.

``The important thing is that this game doesn't get put on the wrong track and that we talk only about football. Two clubs that are friends are meeting again.''

Juve's former midfielder Michel Platini, who scored the only goal of the game from a dubiously awarded penalty, rarely talks about Heysel and has vowed never to return to the scene of the disaster.

However, one day he might have to. Platini has recently declared his candidature to run for the presidency of UEFA when Lennart Johansson retires next year.— Reuters

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport