30 years of Premier League: The origins of the most powerful

football league in the world

Fights, overcrowding, politics and deaths brought changes to English football

This past Monday (15), the Premier League celebrated 30 years since its first
round. On August 15, 1992, the kickoff was given to what would become the
strongest and most powerful football league in the world. But before the
'glamour' and the money, English football experienced its darkest moments in
the 80s.

Politics and football side by side: The 'Iron Lady'

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher took over as the British Prime Minister. Nicknamed
the 'Iron Lady' for the harsh measures taken that directly affected the working
class, Thatcher played a prominent role in changing English football.

The Prime Minister was elected promising to put an end to the unions, which at
the time were the basis of organized supporters, the 'hooligans'. Her decisions
to privatize and close unprofitable industries did not please the working class,
especially in cities like Liverpool.

Fire in Bradford, brawl in Heysel

In 1985, during a match between Bradford City and Lincoln City in the English
third division, the Valley Parade Stadium caught fire. It’s not known how the fire
started (a lit cigarette in the trash was suspected), but it quickly spread to the
stadium's wooden stands.

Upon seeing the fire, fans tried to leave, but found the exits closed or blocked to
prevent access to those without tickets. In less than five minutes, the main
stand was covered in flames. The result of the tragedy was 56 dead and at least
265 injured.

Days later, Liverpool and Juventus faced each other in the Champions Cup final
(now the Champions League) at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. The
stadium had previously hosted other Cup finals, but was not in a position to host
a game of such scale. To make matters worse, many ‘Reds’ supporters entered
without paying, causing overcrowding.

The fans were only separated by a fence and a few police officers tried to
maintain order. Juventus supporters, squeezed by the lack of space, jumped
trying to escape but fell into the Liverpool fans, generating even more
confusion. Before kick-off, 39 people - mostly Italian fans - were killed, and
more than 600 were injured.

UEFA placed the blame on the 'hooligans' and banned English teams from
European competitions for five years, Liverpool received six. The Thatcher
government accepted. Both ignored the fact that “hooliganism” was not the
main factor in the tragedies, but rather the terrible condition of the stadiums.

For Thatcher, fighting the 'hooligans' was fighting the unions due to the close
connection between the two, but it was a generalization. For her, every fan was
a 'hooligan' and a union worker, which was not the truth. But the government
didn't want to know, as this 2012 article in the British newspaper 'The Guardian'
says.

“In the 1980s, many powerful people in the UK regarded fans as nothing more
than hooligans, who should be policed as robustly as possible.”

In 1989 the 'Football Spectators Act' was created, which required fans to have a
license to watch games, but it was just an attempt to elitize football. It didn’t
work. Months later, the biggest tragedy in English football happened,
Hillsborough.

The Hillsborough 97

In the semi-final of the FA Cup, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest faced each
other at Hillsborough Stadium, in Sheffield. The stadium had a capacity for just
over 35.000 people and was divided between the two sides. What happened
next was more overcrowding, despair and deaths.

Firstly, Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, like Heysel, was unable to host

important games due to infrastructure problems. Secondly, the 'Reds'
supporters, who were the majority, were assigned to the smallest portion of the
stadium. Thirdly, the police had no control over the situation.

Seeing the large flow at the turnstiles at the narrow entrance, the police decided
to open the gates of the section called Leppings Lane, which was already full.
Without any police control, fans, with and without tickets, tried to enter the
stadium, unaware that up front people were being pressed against each other
and by the fence.

The match, which had just begun, was stopped and fans began to escape to the
field, but it was too late. 95 people were crushed to death in the biggest tragedy
in English football. The 96th person died in 1993 and the 97th died in 2021.

The Taylor Report

After the tragedy, the Chief Justice of England, Lord Justice Taylor, began
investigations into the events. It was concluded that “despite other causes, the
main reason for the disaster was the lack of police control”. The report also
highlighted flaws in the stadium's infrastructure.

In addition to the investigation, the Taylor Report made 76 recommendations to

improve stadiums infrastructure, including that all spectators should be seated.
With the changes in action, the first division teams, led by the 'big-five' of the
time (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton and Arsenal) came
together to create their own league. Independent of the English Federation, the
league could negotiate its television rights alone and create a fairer financial
division between the teams. In 1992, 22 clubs left the so-called 'Football
League' and formed the 'FA Premier League'.

30 years later, the most powerful football league in the world

Currently, the Premier League is a reference in the world, moving billions of

pounds per year, its clubs are the richest and the teams are filled with star
players from around the world. But the tragedies that preceded its creation were
never forgotten.

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Written and translated by João Pedro Melo. Published in August 16, 2022 at:
https://www.folhape.com.br/esportes/30-anos-de-premier-league-a-origem-da-
liga-mais-poderosa-do-mundo/237179/