Bradford Remembers The Horror of Twenty-Five Years Ago

As a football club, Bradford City has had their high moments in its distinguished football history.  Who will forget David Wetherall’s spectacular header which beat Liverpool on the final day of the 1999/00 Premiership season.  Unbridled joy at Valley Parade followed when the supporters realised that they had beaten the drop, and Wimbledon went down instead.  However, they have a horror low moment, which today still ranks alongside sport’s biggest tragedies, twenty-five years on.

On Saturday May 11^th 1985, the Bantams day started full of celebration.  The club paraded the Third Division title just before their final match of the season, against Lincoln City.  With the score at 0-0, five minutes before half-time, the main stand at Valley Parade was ignited by a raging fire, that swept through the stand in next to no time.  From a small controllable blaze, to something of the greatest magnitude, as it took little under four minutes for the entire stand to be completely ablaze.  Supporters rushed onto the pitch in panic and fear, completely shocked to the core of the destruction that had just taken place.  Tragically, the gates at the back of the stand had been locked, to prevent people without tickets sneaking into the game.  Even more so, the stand that caught ablaze in dramatic fashion was due for demolition in the summer of 1985, for a more updated version.  56 people, hoping to see a day of celebration and ecstasy lost their lives in the Valley Parade inferno, and over 270 were injured, some with severe burns that see the scars still hurt today.

The club had to go on and play their Second Division games for the following season at Leeds Elland Road and in Huddersfield, before setting up camp at Odsal Stadium, now home to the Super League side, the Bradford Bulls.  Following a staggering amount of donations, Valley Parade reopened in December 1986, but those 56 will never be forgotten.  The cause of the fire is largely unknown, though many believe that it was a dropped cigarette or match that ignited rubbish underneath the main stand, which had been clustered together over a significant number of years.  The heat of the blaze could be felt across the ground, as the venomous smoke lit the sky.  Yorkshire TV, who was filming the game, chose never to release the footage, as a tribute to those who lost their lives.  Having seen pictures and the odd video on YouTube of the horror, I cannot imagine the nightmare that fans were experiencing and for the veteran commentator, John Helm, who was commentating on the game for ITV Football League programme.

Today, Bradford stood silent to remember the fifty-six who perished at the city’s Centaury Square.  Some 2,000 mourners attended the outside memorial, which included a singing of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ before a one-minute silence.  With the Heysel tragedy just a mere three weeks later, the Bradford fire is one of those forgotten tragedies in sport, but it is one of the worst for sure.  Today, we must remember those fifty-six and the scores injured, who went to see a carnival, only to be caught in a horror nightmare. 

To the Bradford 1985 fifty-six, R.I.P.         

Football League Ref: But Is There A Place For Women In The Game?

This blog was first published on February 12th at http://happydude88.livejournal.com/

This has always a fairly controversial and heated debate and it probably will rage on for years to come, but should women have a place in the game of football. Why not, what’s the harm?

On Tuesday night, referee Tony Bates had to come off through injury, with 20 minutes remaining of the hotly-contested Midlands derby between Coventry City and Nottingham Forest. He was replaced by Amy Fearn, who was the senior assistant. Therefore, Fearn became the first woman to referee a match in the Football League. To her credit and that of the players too, the game, which ended in a 1-0 win for Coventry ended without any controversy.

Traditionally, football has been known as a real men’s game and that women should stay away from this sport. However, statistics are not backing up that fact. Eight years ago, Football overtook Netball as the most popular sport that women participate in, and the success of Arsenal and England ladies in major tournaments of recent years suggests that there is a place for women in the game. Sure, it will never overtook the men and nor should it, but does it deserve more exposure. Yes is my simple answer to that.

Sponsorship deals are of a very low income and although ITV screen the Ladies FA Cup final, only the BBC has shown any broadcasting interest into the woman’s game. I think more needs to be done on a commercial side for women to get a real breakthrough into football.

As for Amy Fearn, she has refereed regularly in the Blue Square Premier of recent years, but is highly confident of someday, referring a match in the Barclays Premier League. With the success of foreign referees abroad, even taking charge of crucial UEFA Europa League and domestic games, then I certainly think that Fearn’s ambition is certainly an achievable goal. There may only be 1,000 women who are registered referees in England, but if Amy Fearn can inspire this statistic, then things may change in the game. It’s not the first time she has made the news either. Back in 2006, then Luton Town manager Mike Newell got into hot water with the FA for a sexist comment about women in football after his side had a penalty turned down against QPR. That day, Fearn was the linesman who turned down the pleas, but it was Newell who was in the wrong and quite rightly, he had to apologise for his comments.

Maybe the game of football doesn’t really want women in it, but I think the game needs them and although men will dominate in the short-term future, it would be nice to see the female side break into the Premiership and above, even if it end up on the referring side.