LFC

Heysel - a day never fogotten (29 May 1985, Heysel - Belgia)

In Memory and Friendship:

Rocco Acerra - Bruno Balli - Alfons Bos - Giancarlo Bruschera - Andrea Casula - Giovanni Casula - Nino Cerullo - Willy Chielens - Giuseppina Conti - Dirk Daenecky - Dionisio Fabbro - Jacques François - Eugenio Gagliano - Francesco Galli - Giancarlo Gonnelli - Alberto Guarini - Giovacchino Landini - Roberto Lorentini - Barbara Lusci - Franco Martelli - Loris Messore - Gianni Mastrolaco - Sergio Bastino Mazzino - Luciano Rocco Papaluca - Luigi Pidone - Bento Pistolato - Patrick Radcliffe - Domenico Ragazzi - Antonio Ragnanese - Claude Robert - Mario Ronchi - Domenico Russo - Tarcisio Salvi - Gianfranco Sarto - Giuseppe Spalaore - Mario Spanu - Tarcisio Venturin - Jean Michel Walla - Claudio Zavaroni.

Rest in Peace

April 15 may be  the saddest day of the year for Liverpool supporters as they remember the Hillsborough disaster, but it's not the only day when many fans stop for a moment to think of a large group of football supporters who went to a match only never to return.

If Hillsborough is the saddest day in the club's history, May 29th is surely the lowest.

On May 29 1985, 39 football fans died when a wall collapsed at the Heysel stadium in Belgium. What should have been one of the greatest nights in the club's history turned into a nightmare.

Instead of leaving Brussels having seen our team lift a fifth European Cup, Liverpool supporters travelled back to England having witnessed the deaths of 39 football fans including 32 Italian fans of Juventus, four Belgians, two from France and one man from Northern Ireland.

Liverpool had objected to the choice of ground to stage the final well before the friendly banter outside the stadium began to turn nasty inside. Aside from the fact that the stadium appeared to be crumbling, Liverpool's main concern was that there was to be a neutral section of the ground set aside for football fans from Belgium. The club argued that only Liverpool and Juventus should be allocated tickets. Setting aside a neutral area would only lead to both sets of fans being able to buy tickets off Belgium touts thus creating a dangerous mixed area. As history has since proved, this neutral area was soon filled with Italian supporters.

As tempers became frayed inside the ground about an hour before kick off, both sets of fans baited each other through a segregating fence made from chicken wire. After a sustained period of missiles being thrown by both sets of supporters, some Liverpool fans charged at their Italian counterparts and, as chaos took over, Juventus fans fled only for a wall blocking their escape to collapse on top of them. Thirty-nine football supporters died where they fell.

Later that night, Juventus won the European Cup 1-nil. It's a match nobody wants to remember.

Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool's greatest ever player, will never forget what happened in Belgium though.

"The fact that fatalities might result wouldn't have occurred to the Liverpool fans when they ran across."

Dalglish admits that it wasn't until the following morning that the Liverpool players finally realised exactly what had happened inside the stadium.

"We saw the Italian fans crying, and they were banging on the side of our bus when we left the hotel," he recalls. "When we left Brussels, the Italians were angry, understandably so; 39 of their friends had died. I remember well one Italian man, who had his face right up against the window where I was sitting. He was crying and screaming. You feel for anybody who loses someone in those circumstances. You go along to watch a game. You don't go along expecting that sort of ending, do you? Football's not that important. No game of football is worth that. Everything else pales into insignificance."

Almost 20 years after that terrible day, Liverpool and Juventus were drawn together again for the first time in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. It was if fate had brought the two teams together to join forces and honour those who had lost their lives at Heysel.

"There is a friendship between the two clubs and supporters," Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry revealed after the draw had been announced. "As soon as the draw paired us together for the first time in 20 years, memories of the Heysel Stadium disaster were naturally in people's minds, both in Turin and here on Merseyside. The two clubs built bridges and forged powerful links after Heysel. The bond between us remains strong, but we still want all Juventus fans to know that we are very sorry about the fact that 39 people lost their lives. We moved forward in a spirit of friendship after Heysel and the clubs continue to work together in a spirit of mutual respect."

May 29th remains a day of remembrance for both Juventus and Liverpool supporters.

YNWA!



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http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/fans/indonesian-reds

Kepada para pendukung The Reds di Indonesia,

Kami merasa sangat bangga akan kuatnya dukungan Anda bagi Liverpool FC. Baik itu melalui Facebook, Twitter atau website resmi Liverpool FC, tingkat dukungan yang kami terima dari Anda begitu luar biasa. Kami ingin menunjukkan rasa terima kasih kepada Anda melalui terciptanya webpage ini di website resmi LFC, hanya untuk pendukung kami di Indonesia!

Sekali lagi kami ucapkan terima kasih atas dukungan Anda. Kami berharap musim yang baru ini akan membawa kesuksesan, dan kami juga mengharapkan untuk terus menikmati dukungan yang begitu besar dari teman-teman kami di Indonesia. Silakan untuk terus mengunjungi www.facebook.com/liverpoolfc dan www.twitter.com/lfctv dengan teman-teman Anda, dan libatkanlah diri Anda dengan menuliskan komentar atau mengirimkan gambar Anda sendiri. Mudah-mudahan kami akan segera memiliki lebih banyak fitur untuk Anda di http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/fans/thekop juga!

Sekali lagi, kami dari Liverpool FC mengucapkan terima kasih atas dukungan dari Anda semua

DIRGAHAYU KE-65 REPUBLIK INDONESIA!

Dear Indonesian Reds,

We’re really proud of the strong support that Liverpool FC has enjoyed from you. Whether it’s via Facebook, Twitter or the Official Liverpool FC website the level of support we’ve received from you has been fantastic. We wanted to find a way to say thank you and so we’ve created this webpage on the Official LFC website just for our Indonesian fans.

Thanks once again for your support. We’re looking forward to a new and hopefully successful season and that we’ll continue to enjoy such great support from our friends in Indonesia. Please continue to share our www.facebook.com/liverpoolfc page and www.twitter.com/lfctv with your friends and continue to get involved by commenting or posting your own pictures. Hopefully we’ll soon have more features for you at http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/fans/thekop too!

Thanks again from Liverpool FC for your much valued support and of course Happy Independence Day!

Best wishes

LFC

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Liverpool Buka Sekolah Sepak Bola di Indonesia

Legenda sepakbola Liverpool di era 70an hingga 80an Phil Neal mengadakan coaching clinics dalam kegiatan bertajuk BritCham's Giving Kids a Sporting Chance Commnunity Finals Day di GOR Soemantri, Kuningan, Jakarta, Sabtu (14/5).

Acara tersebut merupakan final liga sepakbola yang telah berlangsung selama 6 bulan dan melibatkan 200 sekolah dari daerah miskin dan pedesaan di Jawa Barat. Sekitar 3.000 anak berusia 7-11 tahun berpartisipasi dalam liga tersebut.

"Indonesia dan Inggris memiliki minat yang besar pada olahraga sepak bola dan olahraga adalah cara terbaik untuk berkumpul bersama-sama. Dan kami sangat senang dengan kehadiran Phil Neal dalam acara ini," kata Wakil Duta Besar Inggris Alison Blackburne.

Sementara itu, Phil Neal yang tampak kepanasan dalam mengikuti gelaran acara tersebut, tetap bergembira melihat permainan sepak bola yang disuguhkan. Phil juga sempat memberikan beberapa pelatihan kecil tentang cara menendang kepada anak-anak.

"Saya melihat semangat anak-anak ini," ujar Phil dengan singkat. Ia lalu memberikan 50 bola yang telah ditanda tanganinya kepada para penonton yang mayoritas anak-anak.

Di sisi lain, Direktur Eksekutif BritCham's (British Chambers), Chris Wren mengungkapkan rasa bangganya melihat bahwa liga primer Inggris (EPL) sangat diminati di Indonesia. "Penting untuk menyebarkan semangat sepakbola ke dalam kehidupan anak-anak."

Ia lantas mengungkapkan bukan tidak mungkin dari liga yang dibina secara baik dan berjenjang, akan lahir pemain Indonesia di masa depan. "Yang penting ada liga junior yang mumpuni."

Program BritCham dalam melaksanakan liga sepakbola junior ini sendiri sudah memasuki tahun keempatnya. Dan kunjungan sekolah sepakbola Liverpool FC International Academy merupakan kunjungan ketiga, yang sekaligus menandai terbentuknya sekolah sepak bola, jaringan sekolah sepak bola dan liga junior ternama di Indonesia, yang diklaim pertama kali dilakukan di luar Eropa.

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