From an act of hooliganism to the worst disaster
in British sporting history, here’s what
happens when soccer goes wrong:
Number 7 Boca Juniors Bus Attack
The second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores
final, between Boca Juniors and River Plate,
had to be postponed after River supporters
attacked the Boca team’s bus.
As the Boca team bus approached the stadium,
hundreds of River supporters began pelting
it with stones, sticks and bottles.
Two Boca players suffered eye injuries caused
by pieces of glass from the shattered windows.
Tear gas then entered the bus.
It isn’t clear if it came from the attackers
or from police trying to disperse them.
Several Boca players were seen coughing or
vomiting while others were trying to clear
their eyes.
The bus driver reportedly fainted and the
vehicle would have crashed if Boca’s vice-president
hadn’t grabbed the steering wheel.
Argentine soccer supporters are notorious
for their passion but many of them were quick
to criticize the attack.
Argentine soccer legend Gabriel Batistuta,
described it as ‘shameful’ as he wrote
on Twitter ‘Another opportunity lost in
front of the whole planet’.
Number 6 Emiliano Sala Plane Crash
Following his transfer to Nantes, in 2015,
Argentine forward Emiliano Sala hit form and
became the club’s top goalscorer for three
consecutive seasons.
This drew the attention of Premier League
team, Cardiff City.
In January 2019, Sala was transferred for
a club record $20 million.
Unfortunately, Sala never got the chance to
leave his mark on the Premier League.
He died in a tragic plane crash, on January
21, 2019.
Flying from Nantes to Cardiff on a Piper Malibu
light aircraft.
He’d said goodbye to his former teammates
and was going to attend his first training
session with the new team.
A WhatsApp message, sent by Sala to his family
was released by the Argentine media.
In it, Sala said he felt like the plane was
‘falling to pieces’ and ended with ‘Man,
I’m scared!’
The police called off the search after a three-day
examination of an area 1,700 square miles.
The decision was met with worldwide calls
for the search to continue from the president
of Argentina as well as fellow Argentine players
Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero.
Over $350,000 was raised on GoFundMe and two
private underwater searches were launched.
Sala’s body was found inside the plane wreckage
on February 4, recovered on February 7 and
identified via fingerprinting.
Number 5 Munich Air Disaster
On February 6, 1958, British European Airways
Flight 609 crashed after a failed attempt
to take off the runway at Munich-Riem Airport,
in West Germany.
The aircraft was carrying the Manchester United
soccer team, along with journalists and supporters.
An investigation initially carried out by
the West German airport authorities, placed
the blame on Captain James Thain, the only
surviving pilot of the crash.
Co-pilot Kenneth Rayment died of his injuries
five weeks after the incident.
The pilots had abandoned the takeoff twice
due to boost surging in the left engine.
They didn’t want to fall behind schedule,
so they tried taking off a third time.
By then falling snow caused slush to form
at the end of the runway.
The plane reached the minimum speed required
for take-off and the pilots expected it to
keep rising.
However, it suddenly dropped and the plane
skidded off the runway and plowed into a fence.
It kept going and its left wing was torn off
after it got caught on a house.
The house burst into flames, but none of the
people inside were hurt.
The fuselage hit a hut which housed a truck
filled with tires and fuel.
An explosion followed.
23 out of the 44 people on board the plane
lost their lives.
Eight Manchester United players died while
others were injured.
Ten years after the incident, Captain Thain
was cleared after it was concluded that the
slush had caused the crash.
Number 4 Heysel Stadium Disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster has been described
as ‘the darkest hour in the history of the
UEFA competitions’.
It took place on May 29, 1985, during the
European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool,
at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
About an hour before kick-off supporters from
Liverpool and Juventus charged at each other
breaking through a fence which separated them
from a neutral area.
The cause of the attack was disputed with
some eye-witnesses claiming it had been incited
by the Italian supporters and others denying
the claim.
The Italian supporters ran back into a concrete
wall, crushing those who were already standing
next to it.
The wall ultimately collapsed due to the pressure.
Some escaped but many others were killed or
badly injured.
When the dust settled, 39 people, mostly Italians
and Juventus supporters, had lost their lives
and 600 others had been injured in the confrontation.
In the aftermath, 14 Liverpool supporters
were found guilty and convicted of manslaughter,
each having to serve 3 years in prison.
Number 3 LaMia Flight 2933
On November 28, 2016, LaMia Flight 2933 was
carrying the Chapecoense team, their staff
and several journalists from Bolivia to Medellin.
The team had reached the final 2016 Copa Sudamericana
final and was scheduled to play the first
leg against Atletico Nacional.
Tragedy struck as they approached their final
destination, when their plane crashed.
All its engines had flamed out due to fuel
exhaustion.
Only 6 of the people on board survived.
One of the three players who were rescued
from the crash site was backup goalkeeper
Jackson Follmann.
Because of his extensive injuries, he later
had one of his legs amputated, ending his
career.
In the aftermath, the families of the 71 people
who lost their lives on flight 2933 demanded
answers.
An investigation, concluded on April 27, 2018,
revealed a combination of human errors.
The pilot had skipped a crucial refueling
stop in Bogota.
The crew didn’t declare an emergency when
fuel levels became critically low which caused
air traffic control in Medellin to prioritize
other planes for landing.
There were other factors which included poor
oversight by Bolivian aviation authorities,
who’d approved a faulty flight plan.
LaMia’s license was revoked and several
people were arrested.
Among the many displays of solidarity throughout
the nation, was also an offer by Atletico
Nacional to concede the championship to Chapecoense.
Number 2 Estadio Nacional Disaster
To this day, the Estadio Nacional disaster,
in Peru, is the worst in soccer history.
On May 24, 1964, Peru was hosting Argentina
in the qualifying round for the Tokyo Olympics.
An important match for Peru and it drew 53,000
supporters to the stadium.
With 6 minutes left on the clock, Argentina
was leading by one, when the referee disallowed
a goal for Peru.
Some of the home supporters invaded the pitch
in protest.
This prompted the Peruvian police to fire
tear gas canisters into the crowd.
Panic followed as well as an attempt at mass
exodus with the supporters fleeing from the
effects of the gas.
The stadium’s tunnels connected the street
level to the seating areas through several
flights of steps.
The stadium didn’t have standard gates but
solid corrugated steel shutters at the bottom
of the tunnels.
According to the normal routine, they were
closed during the game.
As the mass of people was trying to flee,
the ones at the front were pressed into the
shutters.
People that kept coming down the stairwell
couldn’t see what was happening at the front
and that people were being crushed to death.
In the end, the pressure from the crush of
bodies on the inside was so great that the
steel shutters burst open.
According to the official reports, 500 people
were injured and 328 people died in the stairwells
due to asphyxia or internal bleeding.
Even though it exceeds the death toll of several
other soccer disasters combined, that number
has been considered an underestimate.
Number 1 Hillsborough Inquest
The events of April 15, 1989, at Hillsborough
stadium, marked the most tragic day in British
sporting history.
During the FA cup semi-final match between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, over 24,000
Liverpool supporters had travelled to Sheffield
for the match.
They were allocated the North and West stands
of Hillsborough stadium, known as Leppings
Lane.
Before the match started, there was a crowd
build-up outside the turnstiles at Leppings
Lane.
Then, an order was given to open exit gate
C, in an effort to relieve turnstile pressure.
In just five minutes, about 2,000 Liverpool
supporters entered the stadium.
Many headed to the fenced central pens, which
were already overcrowded.
Normally, the police or stewards should have
directed them to the side pens, once the central
ones were full, but, for reasons not fully
known, this didn’t happen.
Chaos and a fatal human crush ensued.
Hundreds of people were pressed against each
other and against the fences.
Many died of comprehensive asphyxia while
standing, unable to breathe due to the enormous
pressure placed on their bodies.
Others spilled out of the pen or tried climbing
to safety.
According to Bruce Grobbelar the Liverpool
goalkeeper, people were pleading for help
as the situation got worse.
In the end, 96 people lost their lives, the
youngest of whom was a 10-year-old boy, and
766 others were injured.
Initially, the police fed false stories to
the media suggesting that the drunkenness
and hooliganism of Liverpool supporters were
the main factors behind the disaster.
The first coroner inquest, from 1991, ruled
all the deaths to have been accidental.
It was criticised by the victims’ families.
An independent panel re-examined the evidence,
in 2009, and a second coroner’s inquest
was held from April 2014 to April 2016.
It ruled that that the supporters were not
to blame and they’d been unlawfully killed
due to the grossly negligent failures by police
and emergency services to care for them.
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