Heysel and Beyond

Being justifiably upset by the events at the Heysel Stadium many years ago, the recent comments on a video I made about it … http://youtube.com/watch?v=vxqjTZYV5do

… on the 25th anniversary of the awful event made me recall some TV reporting of what was reputedly  to be a Juventus “fan” brandishing a gun on the pitch.

This was well reported and many people remember this (see later link rferences).

However, I’ve trawled the internet looking for pictures of this person and after an hour’s work, have found absolutely nothing, which, given the nature of the event, the host of personal recollections and the ease with which information can be posted and retrieved from the web, is very strange indeed.

So why can’t I find a single picture of this?  Why?

If I recall correctly, the gunman was one of the Juventus owner’s family, or party.  Everyone seems to remember that after the event, the gun was found to be a starting pistol and that he was chastised by the family and grounded for a bit.  However, for anyone who has ever been threatened by a gunman, post event information is small cheer indeed!

Meanwhile:

• Liverpool “fans” were convicted and later the town and club had a double hit of karmic retribution.
• Football in the UK, after being banned from Europe, has cleaned up it’s act, (generally, with the odd notable exception), moved on and is moneyed up to the eyeballs.
• Football in Italy is as partisan and violent as ever with corruption at every level of the sport that sees clubs dropped a league or two and opposing teams’ support afraid to visit the country.

So where is the Heysel gun (and man)?  Where are the pictures?  I’d like to know, if only to clarify my mind.  All I see are the fans on the pitch with iron bars and dead and dying fans under a wall.

Joe Fagan, the Liverpool manager, left the pitch, from what was planned to be his last match in charge, in tears.  I’m sure it was because he saw what had happened to his beautiful game.

Now, the xenophobes and unforgivers need to move on.  Justice was doubly served on Liverpool and a picture of the Juve “fan” with a gun would balance some memories of the time.  Juve people need to accept this or else the hate and violence that we see on the Italian terraces will never go, until they too, have their own karmic retribution.

There’s a lot that still needs to be done.

Links

• Karma & karmic retribution – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma
• “What is really tragic is that the underlying tribal and, to put it mildly, xenophobic attitudes amongst so-called fans and the police that lead to this and other tragedies are still prevalent twenty-five years on.” – http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/28/heysel-disaster-25th-anniversary#CommentKey:424a1ae9-2644-49d4-842e-8f63043a73ad
• http://bianconeri.tripod.com/heysel.html
• http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/heysel-footballs-darkest-hour.html
• http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Heysel:Stadium:disaster.htm
• http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/27/we-heard-a-gun-go-off-the-italian-fans-had-a-gun-a-photographer-s-memory-of-heysel-100252-26529987/ – read comments!
• http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2010/03/heysel-25-years-on-the-view-from-belgium/comment-page-1/#comment-19512

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