RUSSIA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: Spartak Moscow and Haarlem mark the 25th anniversary of the Luzhniki Stadium tragedy

Hundreds of Russian and Dutch fans got together on Saturday (October 20) to mark the 25th anniversary of the Luzhniki stadium disaster. Officials of the former Soviet Union failed for years to disclose the tragedy that occurred at a UEFA Cup match between Spartak Moscow and Dutch club HFC Haarlem on Oct. 20, 1982. When they did, the authorities gave an official death toll of 66 although the number who died in a crush at one exit could have been as high as "The fact that Russia is afraid to admit it and express condolences to parents for 25 years, this is what I can not understand," said Nina Novostruyeva. Novostruyeva's 15-year-old son Mikhail died in the crush and on Saturday she went along with other members of the families of the victims to lay flowers at a monument near Luzhniki. Spartak fan Vladimir Shorinov, who was at the UEFA Cup match, said it was a cold, snowy day. The stadium was half empty and only one part of it was open to spectators. The Moscow side were leading 1-0 and some spectators headed for an exit before the final whistle, the only one of four open. But the fans who were leaving rushed back up the icy stairs when Spartak scored a late goal, crushing people in the middle. Dutch fans were sitting in a separate section of the ground and used a different exit and did not know what had occurred. "We did not really realise what happened on that day. We heard several days later that there was an accident, but we did not know what kind of accident it was. Later on we heard what great impact it had," said president of Haarlem Dick Hulsebosch before the benefit game on Saturday between veterans of Spartak and Haarlem, many of whom played on that day in 1982. Russia's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat, who coaches Premier League club Zenit St Petersburg, helped organise the benefit game. The relatives claim that if officials confirmed the true scale of the disaster it would dwarf the tragedies at Hillsborough and Heysel. Ninety-six people were crushed at the Hillsborough ground in Sheffield, England in 1989 while 39 people died at the Heysel stadium in Brussels in 1985. About 300 fans were killed and more than 500 injured during stadium riots in the Peruvian capital of Lima in 1964, the world's worst soccer disaster.

ITN Source | October 21, 2007

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