Football stadia disasters in the United Kingdom: learning from tragedy?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine a number of sports stadia disasters involving British fans since 1971. While each of the four incidents described (Ibrox 1971, Bradford 1985, Heysel 1985, Hillsborough 1989) can be described as crises in their own right (and led to the deaths of about 250 peo ple in total) it is argued here that they are the effect of a wider crisis of man agement within the football industry, rooted in poor and inadequate manage ment of sports stadia and the crowds that use them. It should be noted from the outset, however, that this is not simply a British phenomena, as the tragedies in Mexico City (1985) and Bastia (1992) indicate and that findings from this research should be of use to all involved in the management of sporting events.