My memories of how I learned about the news regarding the Hillsborough Disaster and the Bradford Fire Disaster are a lot more vivid than what happened 25 years ago today in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Part of the reason was because both the Hillsborough and Valley Parade games were played on a Saturday, while the European Cup Final of 1985 was played on a Wednesday night in Brussels. For me, living in the United States, it was certainly easier to follow games on my shortwave radio on a Saturday morning when the signal was much more clearer than on a Wednesday afternoon when I would be working and the signal strength was abysmal.

Of course, these were the days long before when there was no live English football on television in the United States.

My memory is fuzzy but I  news of the Heysel Stadium Disaster was on the nightly network news in the States that evening. I remember feeling disgusted and ashamed of being a football supporter. This was only two weeks after the awful Bradford City fire disaster. And four years before the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster that was caused by a failure of police control.

While the death of football supporters at Hillsborough and Valley Parade was linked to circumstances outside of football hooliganism, the cause of death for the 39 fans who died on May 29 1985 can be linked directly to football hooliganism after they died when a wall collapsed due to Juventus fans trying to escape from the onrushing Liverpool supporters.

For the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus, the Heysel Stadium in Belgium was segregated with Liverpool supporters at one end of the ground and Juventus fans at the other. However, next to the Liverpool supporters section was Block Z, which was meant for neutral supporters. These neutral tickets were put on open sale in Brussels in the weeks leading up to the tournament. Within hours of going on sale, they were all sold many of which were bought by the substantial Italian population in Brussels as well as travel agents and ticket touts. A small percentage of the tickets sold ended up in the hands of Liverpool fans.

On the day of the European Cup Final, Liverpool supporters found themselves next to a large contingent of Juventus fans, separated just by a few yards. Missiles began to be thrown by each set of team supporters. And many of them found stones from the crumbling terraces beneath them. Approximately one hour before the game was scheduled to start, the throwing of missiles became more intense. A group of Liverpool supporters then charged across the terraces and into the “neutral” section where the Juventus supporters stood. This caused the Juventus supporters to retreat. But having nowhere to escape, they ended moving towards a perimeter wall near the corner flag. Under the weight of all of the fans against the wall, some who tried to escape over it, the wall collapsed. At this point, most of the deaths occurred. Thirty nine in total and more than 600 people were injured.

The UEFA officials decided that the game should go ahead. Otherwise if they cancelled the game, they feared it would incite more violence. It was a game that few cared about after what had happened on the terraces.

Officially, the entire blame for the Heysel Stadium Disaster was placed on Liverpool supporters by UEFA. After an 18-month investigation by a Belgian judge, the dossier concluded that the blame should be shared by Liverpool supporters, police and football authorities.

As a result of the Heysel Disaster, UEFA banned English clubs from competing in European competitions for five years. Liverpool ended up being banned for six years.

Of the 39 football fans who died that terrible day, 32 of them were Italian fans of Juventus, four were Belgians, two French people and one man from Northern Ireland. May they all rest in peace.

It seems like yesterday for some football fans, a day burned in to the memories of English footballs collective consciousness. The 1980′s saw three major footballing disasters hit English football, The dreadful fire at Bradford City’s title party which claimed the lives of 56 fans on May 11th 1985, 18 days later we then witnessed the horror of live football hooliganism on our TV’s instead of the European Cup final, as 39 fans lost their lives. It still astounds me that Liverpool and Juventus were forced to play the game after the chaos was still echoing around Heysel and of course April 15th 1989, the Hillsborough disaster during the F.A.Cup semi final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

As a teenager when all 3 events occurred, these are moments that are still so fresh in my mind, placed away in dark corners of my footballing supportingbrain but Hillsborough is an event that is closer than it should have been. I live in Sheffield and every year I take two little bunches of flowers down to Sheffield Wednesdays ground on the anniversary, leaving a bunch by the Memorial and then I take the hardest walk I can through choice down to the Leppings Lane end of the ground which witnessed the dreadful events that day.

I stand around, tears streaming down my face and remember the two good friends I lost that day, my father in law trying his best to help people inside the ground as people lay dying and critically injured all around him. Trying to do his best against insurmountable odds but overwhelmed by the events surrounding him. He had 5 people die in his arms that day, but saved twice as many. I shudder to think that I turned a ticket down that my Liverpool supporting mates had going spare.20 years ago? It seems like yesterday sometimes.

I could have been there, caught up in the middle of chaos. It took me 9 years to go in to the away end of Wednesdays ground and I still don’t like it. Every time Spurs played them I sat with the Wednesday fans, regardless of the stick I took, I simply couldn’t sit there. I was terrified. Suffice to say, I do not miss Sheffield Wednesday being in the Premiership, sorry Wednesday fans.

Regardless of your feelings towards Liverpool, it’s an event that proved a watershed for football around the world, that finally made the authorities and football clubs deal with the crumbling, decaying grounds that we had to put up with in the 1980′s. The Premiership was born that day, but what a price to pay in so many lives lost. It is a day that respect should be shown to Merseyside, not just Liverpool and their fans, but everyone affected in the area by the events.

Yet, here we are, 30 days away from the Quarter Finals of the Champions League and it appears UEFA are still debating if Liverpool should have to play on April 15th. It’s a non starter for me and one of those things about the administration of football that still flabbergasts me by the stupidity of some people involved in the running of the game at the top level. How hard is it to come out and simply make a statement that Liverpool will play either April 14th or the 16th? It’s not rocket science is it but then again, it is UEFA, so I shouldn’t be surprised. It just infuriates me when things like this occur. Call themselves football people? They haven’t a clue.

As happened last season when we saw the 50th anniversary of Munich air disaster and people started having fits when the fixture computer threw out a Manchester Derby for the weekend after. The fact that Manchester City legend Frank Swift was one of the victims of the disaster seemed to be missed by a large amount of media and authorities, fearful that City fans would ruin the day. City’s fans that day were a credit to themselves and the club and regardless of their allegiances, Manchester was a City in mourning after Munich, no matter which side you supported, City or United, Manchester lost a lot on February 6th 1958.

UEFA should come out with something worthwhile for once and assure Liverpool they will not play on April 15th. For the memories of the 96 people that died, the families, friends and witnesses to that day, show us the respect we deserve to mourn our loss, however we see fit that day. Is it too much for us to expect of UEFA to do the right thing for once?