Links

_{Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites.}

The Heysel Tragedy Remembered
www.goal.com/NewsDetail.aspx?id
News=54452&idSez=126
An incredibly comprehensive and objective blow-by-blow account of exactly what happened on that fateful day in May 1985.

Liverpool Football Club
www.liverpoolfc.tv/lfc_story/heysel/
This official site has a page remembering the Heysel tragedy, which it describes as the lowest day in the club's history. It also features remembrances from Kenny Dalglish who was in Belgium for the match.

Lost Lives that Saved a Sport
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story
/0,1563,1448505,00.html
Award-winning author Andrew Hussey, from Liverpool, explains why Heysel was the inevitable result of a brutalised era and tells how a game rebuilt itself from the rubble. An intelligent and brave article acknowledging the truth of what went on and the culpability of the Liverpool fans, whilst at the same time investigating the wider context of events and what lay behind them.

Encyclopaedia Lockergnome
http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/
b/Heysel_Stadium_disaster
A complete analysis of the story, bringing events right up to date, with details of how Juventus and Liverpool played in the quarterfinals of the 2005 Champions League, on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy – the first time the clubs had met in a competition game since Heysel.

Hooliganism
http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/
b/Hooliganism
A wider history of hooliganism in general, acknowledging that it is probably as old as civilisation, since in the 6th century, rivalry between supporters of the Blue and Green chariot-racing teams in Constantinople, led to 30,000 deaths.

The Witnesses
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/
story/0,6903,1448082,00.html
An interesting collection of interviews with players and fans who were present on the day of the disaster, asking for their recollections 20 years on. Includes a fairly shocking response from Phil Neal, then Liverpool Captain, who seems to be the only person expecting to be paid for his views.

Turin Dreaming of Justice and Goodwill
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,762-1554715,00.html
An emotive article that interviews Italian survivors of Heysel, including Nereo Ferlat, who was nearly crushed to death against the infamous wall, and who wrote a book in an attempt to exorcise the demons that haunted him after the disaster, and Othello Lorentini, a father whose son died in the stadium and who founded the Association of Families of Heysel.

Heysel remembered
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,762-1554611,00.html
Looks at the effect of the 5-year European ban on English football teams that arose from Heysel. Long debated, what no one can contest is the statistic that, between 1977 and 1984, English teams won the European championship seven times. Only Manchester United, with their isolated victory in 1999, has reached the final since.

Soccer Hooliganism: Made in England, but Big Abroad
www.englischservice.de/hooligans3.html
A look at how hooliganism became one of England's most successful exports, with soccer violence erupting in Germany, Italy and the Eastern European countries.

Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk/footballresearch/resources
/factsheets/fs1.html
A fact sheet looking at how the British game has changed since the 'slump' season of 1985/86, which followed the Heysel tragedy, and the commensurately dramatic increase in attendance – in England it has risen steadily from a post-war low of 16.5 million in 1985/86 to 21.8 million in 1995/96, an extraordinary rise of 32%. This fact sheet predominately examines the nature of hooliganism, the control of which is one of the factors credited in the change.

Cannabis News
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6122.shtml
Intriguing analysis of football violence in Europe compared with the US, which doesn't seem to suffer in the same way with their national sports. Describes how cannabis has been used as a possible hooligan deterrent where a Dutch police spokesman credits an incident free England V Portugal match in Holland, in part due to the infamous Dutch coffee shops selling marijuana where a lot of the fans spent their day. 'It may have helped relax them' said the spokesman.

Books

	Hooligan: A history of respectable fears by Geoffrey Pearson (Palgrave Macmillan, 1983) Thought we were the first generation to be plagued by youth crime? Think football hooligans are something that started with the Premiership? Then think again. This is a lively, informative read which highlights the history of the perception of youth disorder in Britain. Get this book
	Hooligan Wars: Causes and effects of football violence edited by Mark Perryman (Mainstream Sport, 2002) The good, the bad, the beautiful game: a mix that few can explain and yet whenever football hooliganism breaks out, the government, the football authorities, the police and journalists are all too ready to offer quick-fix solutions that rarely consider the underlying causes of the violence. Is it about boys becoming men, racism and the hatred of all things foreign or about a defence of territory and national pride? This title looks behind the easy answers by comparing England's fan culture to football supporters' experience in France, Germany and Holland. Get this book
	Naughty: The story of a football hooligan gang by Mark Chester (Milo Books, 2004) Recognised by police intelligence officers as one of the most organised and violent soccer hooligan gangs currently active in Britain, the NaughtyForty are both renowned and feared on the football terraces. This shocking inside story, written by one of the gang's central figures for two decades, takes readers inside the gang from its origins to its present day. A frank and explicit tale. Get this book

Top