Both Liverpool supporters had previously survived the Hillsborough tragedy
“The last Champions League final reactivated the trauma of 1989”, assure the support associations
Five months after the events, the effects of the organizational chaos that took place in the Champions League final on May 28 at the Stade de France are still alive, when Real Madrid beat Liverpool (1-0) over grass.
As reported on Wednesday by Peter Scarfe, president of HSSA (Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance), an association to help victims of Hillsborough, Two followers of the ‘red’ team who attended Saint-Denis that day and 36 years ago witnessed the Hillsborough tragedy have committed suicide. It was too much.
As a reminder to the youngsters, on 15 April 1989, during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forrest, played at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, 96 Liverpool fans – including children – were crushed to death in a violent avalanche. At least 150 faithful of the ‘red’ team, who survived those excruciating scenes, also attended the last European final, having the impression of reliving the same nightmare at times.
Before the match, near the Stade de France, they pressed against other spectators, due to the inadequate management of the flow of people by the police, before finding themselves, some of them, blocked against the gates of the venue, waiting. to be able to enter. Among these sympathizers who have lived through these two tragedies, two of them committed suicideas Scarfe explained.
Eleven fans, in therapy
“I cannot give too many details about these suicides as investigations are ongoing, except that one took place about a week after the Saint-Denis final and the other last week. The victims were between 52 and 63 years old and there is no doubt that, if they committed this irreparable act, it was because the last Champions League final reactivated the trauma of 1989, which they thought they had overcome& rdquor ;, he stated Scarf.
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The HSSA president added: “The memory of 1989 has come back to haunt them because the events at the Stade de France have so much in common with those at Hillsborough. In both cases there were crowd movements complicated by bottlenecks, people crammed under a tunnel, blocked turnstiles preventing entry to the stadium and, above all, subsequent false charges. Given the the French government, like the English police, spontaneously accused Liverpool fans of being responsible for these outbursts..”
As of today, the HSSA is funding therapy for eleven supporters who witnessed the Hillsborough and Stade de France incidents and suffer from psychological distress. “Each of these therapies costs several thousand pounds and we are struggling to finance them, despite the donations we receive and the contribution of the club’s foundation (LFC Foundation) & rdquor ;, specified Scarfe, who added that a third victim of ‘Hillsborough took his own life this year, in April, just before the anniversary of this tragedy. Unlinked, therefore, to the last final.