BELGIUM: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: CEREMONY MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HEYSEL STADIUM DISASTER IN WHICH 39 FANS DIED

Record ID: 548286

  • Title: BELGIUM: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: CEREMONY MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HEYSEL STADIUM DISASTER IN WHICH 39 FANS DIED
  • Date: 29th May 2005
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MAY 29, 2005) (REUTERS) ZOOM OUT OF NEWSPAPER SHOWING A PICTURE OF THE DRAMA IN 1985 TO THE KING BAUDOUIN STADIUM.
  • Embargoed: 13th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Disasters,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABWPSAR0Y960RYH6J14QPIAZA6
  • Story Text: Ceremony marks the 20th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster in which 39 soccer fans died.
    Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster in which 39 football fans died, the Belgian capital unveiled a monument on Sunday (May 29).
    The victims, mostly Italians, died when soccer fans rioted before the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus 20 years ago and a wall collapsed at the dilapidated Heysel Stadium. It has since been torn down and replaced by the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.
    The monument is a 60-metre square sundial sculpture incorporating a light inset for each of the 39 fans who died.
    About 1,000 people, including families of victims as well as municipal authorities from Brussels, Liverpool and Turin, attended the ceremony.
    Until now, the only memorial to the victims has been a small plaque near the section of the stadium that collapsed.
    Despite the tragedy, the match continuned and Juventus won 1-0.
    Italian Giuseppe Cremona said at the ceremony it was important not to forget what happened as a lesson to the young and to ensure that it could never happen again.
    Liverpool supporter Dean Stanley was in the stadium and among the Italian fans when the wall collapsed.
    "I was here twenty years ago, in the wrong section, in Z section, on the wall... And the wall collapsed and I nearly went with it, I tried to help the Italian fans, but couldn't. I did nothing wrong but I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I wanted to come back and say sorry,"
    he said.
    The Mayor of Liverpool, Alan Dean said: "People shouldn't get killed at sporting events, it should never have happened but it did, we need to recognise that and we've worked really hard, the city and the football clubs, to try and bring people together and learn from the mistakes that we made."
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