by Our Sports Desk

UEFA president Michel Platini said the horrors of the Heysel disaster have “never left” him as football marked the 30th anniversary of the tragedy yesterday.

A collapsing wall at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels before the start of the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool on May 29, 1985 caused 39 deaths and over 600 injuries. The match went ahead and Platini, then a star midfield playmaker for Juve and the France national team, scored his side’s winner from the penalty spot — but his memories of the night are overwhelmed by the pre-match tragedy.

And in a statement released on Uefa’s website, he wrote: “Thirty years ago, I played in a European Champion Clubs’ Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. And I continue to play in that final. It hasn’t left me, just like it hasn’t left anyone else who was there that night, and remains with all those who lost a loved one, for whom everything changed in a few terrible minutes. Thirty years later, I am the president of Uefa, the organisation that organised the match, and I am working every day with all my colleagues and friends at the national associations, leagues and clubs to ensure that we will never again experience the horror of such a night. We have been working unceasingly for the last 30 years to guarantee safety and security at sporting venues across Europe. On the 30th anniversary of that fateful night, my thoughts are with the 39 people who lost their lives and, of course, with their friends and families. I can only express my deepest sympathy and reiterate that I am still doing everything in my power to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.”

Both clubs marked the anniversary, with Liverpool holding an early-morning memorial service at Anfield and Juve an evening mass at Turin’s Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio Church.Phil Neal, Liverpool’s captain at the time of the disaster, laid a floral tribute at the foot of the Heysel memorial plaque in the Centenary Stand.

Neal said: “It was an honour for me to lay a wreath at the Heysel memorial today in remembrance of those who lost their lives. What happened at Heysel will always be with me and everybody else who was there on that terrible day — we will never forget.”