10 Tragedies in Football
For this list, we're only looking at tragedies involving British football clubs and players, even if some of the tragedies didn't happen on British soil.
#10: Leicester City Helicopter Crash
It was well-known to local fans that Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha liked to travel to and from matches by helicopter, but this routine took a turn for the worst in October 2018. Just minutes after take-off, the control linkage to the tail rotor broke, leaving the helicopter spinning uncontrollably. It then crashed in the stadium car park and burst into flames, killing the pilot and his four passengers, including Vichai. While tragic enough on its own, it also brought back painful memories of Chelsea vice-chairman Matthew Harding’s death in 1996, when his helicopter also crashed.
#9: The Death of Jock Stein
When Scottish winger Davie Cooper came on as a sub and scored a penalty with only nine minutes left in this World Cup qualifying match against Wales in 1985, nobody could have predicted the ensuing tragedy. Veteran football manager and Scottish legend Big Jock Stein collapsed right as Scotland secured a World Cup play-off round against Australia, dying in the stadium soon after the end of the match. Aged just 62, his death cut short Scotland’s victory celebrations, sending the country into a period of national mourning. One Scottish supporter was even quoted on TV as saying they’d “rather be out of the World Cup and have Big Jock back.”
#8: Emiliano Sala’s Plane Vanishes
On the 21st of January 2019, news broke that newly-signed Cardiff City player Emiliano Sala had disappeared while flying near Alderney. His plane went down over the English Channel while travelling from Nantes, France to Cardiff. While in the air, he sent a message to his friends via WhatsApp saying the plane felt “like it’s falling to pieces,” and that they'd know what happened if an hour and a half had passed without news. The plane wreckage was discovered in the Channel in early February, and Sala's body was found on February 7th.
#7: The Death of Marc-Vivien Foé
Known in England through playing for Manchester City and West Ham, Foé was playing for his home country of Cameroon in 2003, when he collapsed on the pitch during their FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final match against Colombia. Foé died after being stretchered off the stadium when attempts to resuscitate him failed. Aged only 28, he died of a hereditary heart condition, which increases risk of sudden death. More recently, Scottish player Phil O’Donnell also died on the pitch of heart failure in late 2007. Before that, in 1936, Sunderland golden boy Jimmy Thorpe died just days after being surrounded and kicked at by Chelsea players mid-match.
#6: Burnden Park Disaster
At the time, this was Britain’s deadliest stadium disaster, when 33 people died in a stampede at this 1946 FA Cup match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City. Bolton’s home ground, Burnden Park, initially had around 65,000 in attendance for the match. However, an additional 20,000 forced their way in, creating a crowd of at least 85,000. It’s thought that fans desperate to attend got into the stadium’s embankment and broke down barriers and climbed over fecnces, leading to dangerous overcrowding. Those killed in the crush were lain along the touchline, and the match eventually resumed despite the circumstances.
#5: Heysel Stadium Disaster
The 1985 European Cup Final in Belgium shook Europe to its core as 39 people lost their lives. It was Liverpool vs Italian heavyweights Juventus, and the incident was so harrowing it led to all English clubs being banned by UEFA from European competition until 1990. With tensions between fans rising, a group of Liverpool supporters crossed into a terrace of Juventus fans an hour before kick-off. Fighting and rioting broke out – though it’s never been confirmed which side started the violence – and many supporters were crushed to death against a concrete wall until it collapsed.
#4: The Second Ibrox Disaster
The First Ibrox Disaster happened at the same Glaswegian ground in 1902, when a stadium collapse caused 25 deaths. But the second, in 1971, killed more than twice as many. Despite worries about the safety of the now-infamous Stairway 13 for years prior to the disaster, after dozens of other injuries and at least two deaths, the staircase reached its breaking point in 1971. During a Rangers v Celtic match, 66 Rangers supporters were crushed to death while attempting to leave the stadium – including numerous children, the youngest of which being only nine years old.
#3: Bradford City Fire Disaster
New regulations make stadiums much safer now, but the old Bradford City grounds were home to some rickety, wooden stands. As well as the wood, decades’ worth of rubbish was piling up underneath them. It’s believed that a spectator dropped a cigarette butt between the gaps in the stands, leading to a devastating fire breaking out and engulfing the crowd in 1985. 56 people lost their lives, despite fire engines reaching the blaze only four minutes after being called. The disaster would lead to legislation being put in place causing new wooden grandstands to be banned in the U.K.
#2: Munich Air Disaster
The darkest day in Manchester United’s history was February 6th, 1958, when their famed “Busby Babes” were involved in a plane accident. The plane crashed in Munich, Germany, after slush on the runway created dangerous conditions during take-off. 23 of the 44 people onboard lost their lives, including eight players from United’s first team, and there are multiple memorials to the tragedy at Old Trafford. It’s not the only fatal plane crash to hit football, either: in 2016, a plane carrying Brazilian team Chapecoense crashed in Colombia. Only six of the 77 people onboard survived.
#1: Hillsborough Stadium Disaster
Football stadiums used to have large standing pens, but that changed when these pens led to mass deaths in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. The central pens became overcrowded thanks to police opening additional gates and not properly monitoring how many people were waiting outside the stadium – or how crowded the central pens already were – leading to thousands of fans piling in. The ensuing chaos led to a fatal crush and the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters and injuries of another 766 fans. An inquest in 2016 ruled that gross police negligence was to blame for this horrendous tragedy, and police chief superintendent David Duckenfield is currently on trial with 95 counts of manslaughter, 30 years after the disaster.
