Whether we like or not, sport really is a substitute for war. Throughout history, death and sport have stood hand in hand and the people that have died have acquired a legendary warrior-like status. The Juventus fans died in the name of their club and Ayrton Senna died in an accident just as he was about to revolutionize motor racings safety standards. The following top list attempts to look at tragedies in terms of the impact they had on an entire sport, or country, rather than just a few individuals.
1. The Superga Tragedy [Wikipedia]
Returning from little more than a friendly, the plane carrying all but two of theTorino football squad, and many of their coaching staff, crashed into the Superga hill near Turin. Everybody on board died.
At that time Torino was the best side in Italy having won 3 successive Series A titles, with 10 of their players in the Italian international team. Though Torino won another title in 1976, the club never truly recovered. The Italian national side, the best in the world in 1949, did not get to the second phase of a tournament until 1968.
2. Michael Watson [Wikipedia]
The judges robbed Michael Watson in his first jab at the world super middleweight title. To many people, it looked like he had thoroughlyoutscored his opponent, the unpopular Chris Eubank. The public demanded arematch and three months later on September 21st 1991, they got their wish.
Watson dominated the fight. By the end of the 11th round all he had to do to win was stay on his feet. Unfortunately, he walked straight into a Eubankpunch. The fight continued into the 12th, but while Eubank connected with blow after blow, Watson could hardly raise a glove. Finally, the refereestopped the fight, but it was too late. Watson collapsed in the ring and lay there for 30 minutes while organizers rushed paramedics to the venue. He survived, but after 40 days in a coma and six operations on his brain, Michael Watson and British boxing would never be the same.
3. Hansie Cronje [Wikipedia]
Many of the worst tragedies in sport occur when people take it too seriously. Well known is the shooting of Colombian footballer Escobar. The motivation is unclear, but he was killed shortly after his own goal against the USA knocked Colombia out of the 1994 World Cup. However, football is a massive sport and as such has the habit of washing its hands in the wave of the next big tournament. No such luck for Hansie Cronje.
The cricketing world was shocked to its roots when the South African captain, recognized as one of the nice guys of the game was fingered for match fixing. He was banned for life. Two years later, his death in a plane crash sparked off the conspiracy theorists.
Whatever the truth, Cronje was a very powerful figure in South Africa and may have been on the verge of naming names involved with the bettingsyndicates. People stood to lose a lot of money. The death of Bob Woolmer at this year’s world cup, and the accusations that followed, no matter how false, proves this matter will not lie.
4. The 1972 Munich Olympics [Wikipedia]
The old adage that sport and politics do not mix does not quite ring true. When it comes to an event like the Olympics, they can mix too well and withdisastrous consequences.
In the 1972 Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes were shot dead by the Palestinianterrorist group Black September. The lax German security allowed the 8 Palestinians, with bags of weapons, to scale the fence that surrounded the Olympic village. They then proceeded to enter the Israeli accommodation and take the athletes hostage, threatening to kill them if the Israeli authorities did not organize the release of 234 Palestinians.
In the resulting debacle, including a failed rescue attempt, 11 Israeli athletes, a German police officer and 5 of the Palestinians died. A while later the Israeli government launched Operation Wrath of God, a massive search to kill the hostage organizers. The Palestinians no doubt responded in kind.
It is worth noting that the following Olympic Games in Montreal lost an awful lot of money.
5. Heysel Stadium [BBC]
In 1985, Liverpool and Juventus, two of the biggest clubs in Europe, were facing each other for the first time in a European Cup final. Before the match started, Liverpool supporters reacted to taunts from the Italian fans by charging through the lines of Belgian police. The Juventus fans could do nothing, but retreat as far as a wall, which collapsed under the pressure and onto their own fans below. In the ensuing panic 39 supporters died and over 350 were injured.
UEFA banned English teams from playing in Europe for five years. However, there were positives. The English FA, with backing from the government, went on a huge campaign to take out the hooligan element, and to some extent succeeded. In addition, along with the Hillsborough disaster it made people look closely at stadium safety. Critics noted even before the match, with 58,000 people coming to watch the game, Heysel was a potential death trap.
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