U.K. soccer to suffer

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 1

U.K. soccer to suffer

NZPA-Reuter Brussels Europe’s most popular sport, shamed by Wednesday’s soccer riot in Brussels, faces pressure for Draconian steps to halt spectator violence. As doctors began thenlast autopsies on bodies of the 38 people now known to have been killed when English fans attacked Italian supporters at the European Cup final, expectations grew that British football as a whole would pay a heavy price for the actions of its worst hooligan fringe. The British Prime Minister, Mris Thatcher, angry at the loss of life and besmirching of her country’s reputation, was likely to press soccer chiefs to pull English teams out of European contests, London officials said.

They said Mrs Thatcher wanted the initiative to withdraw from Euro-com-petitions to come from Britain, rather than waiting for the Union of European Football Associations to decide.

The loss of European soccer would be a severe financial blow to Britain’s

football establishment, already suffering from fading popularity and soaring costs.

The Belgian Government, under fire over the level of policing at the disaster scene inside the Heysel stadium, has decided on a plan to ban unilaterally all British sides from playing soccer in Belgium. The Interior Minister, Mr Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, recommending the ban, said the level of security required to prevent a recurrence appeared prohibitive, and Belgium did not want to turn itself into a police State, “not even for one afternoon.” The excesses of drunken, stone-throwing Liverpool fans who charged into Juventus supporters and shoved them forward against a . collapsing concrete wall was the last straw for security men used to bad crowd trouble at English soccer club forays abroad. ' ,

interior Ministry, officials said that only two of the 38 dead still had to be identified. The police said they were Italian, but were awaiting verification by

relatives ; before releasing names, i.

Bodies of the others, 30 Italians, (our Belgians, a Frenchman, and a Briton, will be 'sent home for burial. i

The officials said the detention of 16 people accused of assault and theft at the stadium was i unrelated to the stampede ? tragedy. The police are conducting an inquiry, using; films of the turmoil to check who provoked it. P, One official said Belgium would expectifull co-opera-tion from Mrs Thatcher in bringing to justice any individual Liverpool fans identified as being among those responsible. The Belgian Football Union’s presidept,-Mr Louis Wouters, forecast that the European Uniop of Football Associations would ban all English teams from European competitions! for three years, with Liverpool out for five years. ; 4 The European’ union’s president, Mr \ Jacques Georges, said severfe punishment was needed tb.protect the public, football,' and sport as a whole./ ' . A fleet of military plaqes

ferried home Italian casualties as the Cabinet prepared to discuss the stadium disaster.

Two planes have arrived in Rome and Bologna with injured fans of the Turin club Juventus.

The Belgian Red Cross said that 437 people were registered for treatment in Brussels hospitals or first aid posts, up from the previous estimate of 370. Rome radio said they included 120 Italians, of whom 68 were still in hospital. The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Bettino Craxi, returning from Moscow yesterday, said he had exchanged “strong words” with the Belgian Government over a decision to play the final in spite of the pre-match rioting and carnage. Italians generally reacted to the tragedy more in sorrow than anger, but there was general condemnation of British soccer fans and calls for a ban on British clubs playing abroad until the . phenomenon of stadium violence had been eliminated.

Further report, pages 9,10