Heysel football riots victims remembered on 40th anniversary

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Victims of the Heysel football riots that claimed 39 lives and injured over 600 people during the 1985 European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool in Brussels were remembered on the 40th anniversary.

Liverpool’s legendary striker John Aldridge and Jonathan Bamber, the club's chief legal and external affairs officer, laid a floral wreath at the Heysel memorial plaque outside Anfield Stadium.

Liverpool's chief executive Billy Hogan and club ambassador Ian Rush also attended the Verso Altrove sculpture unveiling in Turin on Thursday, after the club was invited by Juventus to join their 40th anniversary service.

“I am honored to stand in unity alongside Juventus at their memorial in Turin today and look forward to welcoming Juventus to Anfield later this summer for the official unveiling of our new memorial,"Hogan said.

The event in Turin followed Liverpool's recent announcement of a newly designed Heysel memorial, which will be installed to mark the 40th anniversary.

Known as "Forever Bound," the official unveiling will take place at Anfield later this summer out of respect for Juve's own plans around the anniversary of the European Cup final disaster.

The tragic disaster occurred ahead of the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus on May 29, 1985, in Block Z of the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. Thirty-nine people, mostly Italian and Juventus fans, lost their lives, and hundreds more were injured in the riots.