The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football by David Goldblatt; book review

In May 1985 a massed charge by Liverpool fans at rival Juventus supporters at the European Cup Final in Heysel led to 39 deaths.

There were other contributory factors including the dismal state of the ground, thoroughly inept planning by Uefa and the Belgian authorities and the inexperience of the Belgian police. But with the Sunday Times having already pronounced that football was “a slum game played by slum people in slum stadiums” the focus was on the behaviour of the Liverpool fans. Mrs Thatcher apologised to the Italian government and tried hard to force football fans to have identity cards. Thankfully, she failed.