On May 29th 1985, a European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus was overshadowed by the death of 39 Juventus fans after a wall collapsed in Heysel stadium in Brussels.
There had been doubts raised about the 55-year-old stadium in the build-up to the final with parts of the stadium literally crumbling. On the night of the game, some fans who didn't have tickets were seen kicking holes in the outer wall in order to sneak in. There were also issues with the segregation of supporters inside the ground. Juventus and Liverpool fans behind the goal were separated by temporary chain-link fencing with only a small police presence.
This turned out to be insufficient as at around 7 p.m., an hour before kick-off, the trouble started. Both sets of fans threw missiles at each other and a contingent of Liverpool fans attempted to stampede towards Section Z containing the Juventus supporters. The Juventus fans attempted to climb over a stadium wall in order to escape and the wall collapsed under the pressure.
At this point the majority of deaths occurred with 39 Italian and Belgian fans dying and an estimated six hundred injured.
Remarkably, the game still went ahead with Juventus winning 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Michel Platini.
There were huge repercussions from the Heysel disaster with fourteen Liverpool fans found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, while Johan Mahieu, the police captain in charge of security, and Albert Roosens, secretary of the Belgian Football Union, were convicted of criminal negligence.
UEFA banned English clubs from European competition indefinitely with the ban only fully lifted six years later. Even including the 1985 final, English clubs had won seven of the last nine European Cups but after the ban, there wasn't an English winner until Manchester United in 1999. Perhaps most affected were Everton who never got a chance to play in European competition despite winning two league titles in 1986 and 1988.
