According to this t**t...
A bitter taste of what was to come
ALAN PATTULLO
WHEN Dundee United arrived to take on AS Roma in the semi-finals of the 1984 European Cup it could be argued that the seeds for the bleak, fatal harvest of Heysel stadium 13 months later were in the process of being planted.
Inspired by the Champions League meeting between Liverpool and Juventus, which will conclude tonight, it has been suggested in more than one reflective piece about the Heysel disaster that the reason for the Liverpool fans’ discord was the treatment they had received at the hands of the Roma ‘Ultras’ a year earlier. At the European Cup final, played in the hardly neutral Olympic Stadium, buses transporting Liverpool fans had been pelted, and fans were stabbed in pre-match and post-match scenes which received little coverage amid the tributes to Liverpool’s memorable triumph on penalties.
Not much has changed in Italy since then. Last weekend was one of the worst weekends of violence in Italy this season.
Lazio were punished after fans chanted fascist slogans and waved neo-Nazi banners. Ternana were in trouble over objects thrown at opposition fans and police. Scores of fans were arrested throughout Italy over the weekend, with Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu calling for an urgent meeting to address the situation.
Last night’s abandoned Inter v AC Milan match underlines the country’s hooligan crisis.
Back in 1984, no-one had to tell Jim McLean about Italian fans, or the strength of spirit required to beat Roma in their own, at times vicious, lair. United had proved not nerveless enough, succumbing to the hostile crowd and, it later transpired, an attempt to bribe the referee. Having won the first leg 2-0 at Tannadice, they slipped to an ignoble 3-0 defeat in Rome, losing out on the chance of facing Liverpool in the final. More ignominious was the reaction of the Roma players. A snarling pack of them - including the Brazilian legend Cerezo - pursued McLean and his assistant Walter Smith in the aftermath. In one evocative photograph from the time, a Roma player is seen aggressively approaching McLean with a raised middle finger, the sign adopted by a group of Juve fans in response to the efforts by Liverpool supporters to seek a reconciliation with the Turin club on Tuesday evening. Backs, too, were turned during the minute’s silence at Anfield, proof that, as much as we’d maybe like to pretend, football hasn’t moved on much. The hooliganism which left its tread in the mid-Eighties is considered recent history. The wounds are still to be healed. McLean certainly hasn’t forgotten the ‘welcome’ his side received on 25 April, 1984. It was the biggest night in United’s history - here they stood, a mere 90 minutes from a European Cup final.
McLean said: "They [Roma] were desperate to make the final, and Ernie Walker [then SFA secretary] is still convinced to this day that the president tried to bribe the referee. I don’t know about that. I felt we just didn’t play well enough. But the atmosphere at the time was the worst I have experienced in my life. Poisonous. I would never want to go through it again. Their behaviour was outrageous."
To judge the scale of it one, one must be directed to famous Curva Sud area of the stadium, populated by the hardcore Roma fans, a mass of flags, flares, firecrackers and undisguised hostility. Strung along this end were banners displaying homilies prepared for the visit of their Scottish friends: "ROMA HATES McLEAN. HE’S A P***" was one. A slightly more trenchant "McLEAN F*** OFF" another. To make the United manager feel not quite so paranoid about himself were some less personal messages, including "GOD CURSE DUNDEE UNITED" and "YOU ARE A LITTLE TEAM". And, showing less appreciation of tribal sensitivities on Sandeman Street, "DUNDEE, BE CAREFUL, WOLVES ARE STILL HUNGRY".
Had McLean and his players received a boot in the face while having their passports stamped at the airport, they could not have been given a less cordial reception in Italy. McLean has a theory about why the fans turned on him, and why the players reacted with such fury at the end: he told a joke.
After the first leg, Italian reporters, astounded by how adept United had proved, asked McLean what drugs the players had taken. It was a half- joking, half-serious enquiry. McLean bounced it back at them with a joviality even he found it hard to disguise after a 2-0 win against the Italian champions. "I don’t know what drugs they are on, but I hope they are on the same ones on Saturday," he said. This tongue-in-cheek comment didn’t translate well.
"The Italian papers went crazy with me joking about it," says McLean. "It was because of that comment that so much vitriol was directed at me. I mean, we were still in euphoria. I hadn’t thought it was a serious question, hadn’t considered that they did think we were on drugs."
It would have been sweet for McLean had he been able to stick his own metaphorical two fingers in the air at the Roma fans after the return leg. Alas, it was not to be. United were over-run, with Pruzzo scoring twice and Di Bartolomei supplying the decisive third. United were out, and didn’t McLean, jostled by the Roma players, know it.
"Fortunately Walter [Smith] and [reserve goalkeeper] John Gardner were right behind me," says McLean. "Nobody managed to physically accost me but Walter got hit. And if it hadn’t been for them two I would have been involved in a scuffle."
Just over a month later the Roma players had real reason to squeal, not just losing a European Cup final on penalties, but losing it in their own backyard. The fans had already proved an agitated lot, and Liverpool supporters were the victims of their frustration inside and outside the stadium. Revenge was a notion that formed on the lips of the most senseless that night. And Heysel, according to some, proved the culmination.
A bitter taste of what was to come
ALAN PATTULLO
WHEN Dundee United arrived to take on AS Roma in the semi-finals of the 1984 European Cup it could be argued that the seeds for the bleak, fatal harvest of Heysel stadium 13 months later were in the process of being planted.
Inspired by the Champions League meeting between Liverpool and Juventus, which will conclude tonight, it has been suggested in more than one reflective piece about the Heysel disaster that the reason for the Liverpool fans’ discord was the treatment they had received at the hands of the Roma ‘Ultras’ a year earlier. At the European Cup final, played in the hardly neutral Olympic Stadium, buses transporting Liverpool fans had been pelted, and fans were stabbed in pre-match and post-match scenes which received little coverage amid the tributes to Liverpool’s memorable triumph on penalties.
Not much has changed in Italy since then. Last weekend was one of the worst weekends of violence in Italy this season.
Lazio were punished after fans chanted fascist slogans and waved neo-Nazi banners. Ternana were in trouble over objects thrown at opposition fans and police. Scores of fans were arrested throughout Italy over the weekend, with Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu calling for an urgent meeting to address the situation.
Last night’s abandoned Inter v AC Milan match underlines the country’s hooligan crisis.
Back in 1984, no-one had to tell Jim McLean about Italian fans, or the strength of spirit required to beat Roma in their own, at times vicious, lair. United had proved not nerveless enough, succumbing to the hostile crowd and, it later transpired, an attempt to bribe the referee. Having won the first leg 2-0 at Tannadice, they slipped to an ignoble 3-0 defeat in Rome, losing out on the chance of facing Liverpool in the final. More ignominious was the reaction of the Roma players. A snarling pack of them - including the Brazilian legend Cerezo - pursued McLean and his assistant Walter Smith in the aftermath. In one evocative photograph from the time, a Roma player is seen aggressively approaching McLean with a raised middle finger, the sign adopted by a group of Juve fans in response to the efforts by Liverpool supporters to seek a reconciliation with the Turin club on Tuesday evening. Backs, too, were turned during the minute’s silence at Anfield, proof that, as much as we’d maybe like to pretend, football hasn’t moved on much. The hooliganism which left its tread in the mid-Eighties is considered recent history. The wounds are still to be healed. McLean certainly hasn’t forgotten the ‘welcome’ his side received on 25 April, 1984. It was the biggest night in United’s history - here they stood, a mere 90 minutes from a European Cup final.
McLean said: "They [Roma] were desperate to make the final, and Ernie Walker [then SFA secretary] is still convinced to this day that the president tried to bribe the referee. I don’t know about that. I felt we just didn’t play well enough. But the atmosphere at the time was the worst I have experienced in my life. Poisonous. I would never want to go through it again. Their behaviour was outrageous."
To judge the scale of it one, one must be directed to famous Curva Sud area of the stadium, populated by the hardcore Roma fans, a mass of flags, flares, firecrackers and undisguised hostility. Strung along this end were banners displaying homilies prepared for the visit of their Scottish friends: "ROMA HATES McLEAN. HE’S A P***" was one. A slightly more trenchant "McLEAN F*** OFF" another. To make the United manager feel not quite so paranoid about himself were some less personal messages, including "GOD CURSE DUNDEE UNITED" and "YOU ARE A LITTLE TEAM". And, showing less appreciation of tribal sensitivities on Sandeman Street, "DUNDEE, BE CAREFUL, WOLVES ARE STILL HUNGRY".
Had McLean and his players received a boot in the face while having their passports stamped at the airport, they could not have been given a less cordial reception in Italy. McLean has a theory about why the fans turned on him, and why the players reacted with such fury at the end: he told a joke.
After the first leg, Italian reporters, astounded by how adept United had proved, asked McLean what drugs the players had taken. It was a half- joking, half-serious enquiry. McLean bounced it back at them with a joviality even he found it hard to disguise after a 2-0 win against the Italian champions. "I don’t know what drugs they are on, but I hope they are on the same ones on Saturday," he said. This tongue-in-cheek comment didn’t translate well.
"The Italian papers went crazy with me joking about it," says McLean. "It was because of that comment that so much vitriol was directed at me. I mean, we were still in euphoria. I hadn’t thought it was a serious question, hadn’t considered that they did think we were on drugs."
It would have been sweet for McLean had he been able to stick his own metaphorical two fingers in the air at the Roma fans after the return leg. Alas, it was not to be. United were over-run, with Pruzzo scoring twice and Di Bartolomei supplying the decisive third. United were out, and didn’t McLean, jostled by the Roma players, know it.
"Fortunately Walter [Smith] and [reserve goalkeeper] John Gardner were right behind me," says McLean. "Nobody managed to physically accost me but Walter got hit. And if it hadn’t been for them two I would have been involved in a scuffle."
Just over a month later the Roma players had real reason to squeal, not just losing a European Cup final on penalties, but losing it in their own backyard. The fans had already proved an agitated lot, and Liverpool supporters were the victims of their frustration inside and outside the stadium. Revenge was a notion that formed on the lips of the most senseless that night. And Heysel, according to some, proved the culmination.
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