May 5, 1992 saw the unfolding “the worst disaster in French sport”, when a stand at the Furiani stadium in Corsica collapsed, killing 19 people and injuring more than 2,300 others. Thirty years later, to the day, a minute of silence will be observed, Thursday, May 5, at the Stade-Vélodrome, in Marseille, before the Olympique de Marseille (OM)-Feyenoord Rotterdam match in the semi-final return of the Europa League Conference.
For the entry into force, in 2022, of the law which prohibits matches on May 5 in French competitions, we can see a paradox there, since a meeting will nevertheless be organized on this date. But it will be in the context of a European event, in the semi-finals of the Europa League Conference, and the collective of victims believes that it has reached its ” primary objective “ by sanctifying this day in the future.
“This year, these are quite symbolic and special commemorations”, according to Josepha Guidicelli, the president of the collective of victims. That day, she lost her father, Jean-Pierre Guidicelli, a journalist. “Symbolics”because “thirty years of tragedy” and “particular (…) because the October 20, 2021, there was this law who came to freeze the matches when it falls on May 5”.
This request that no first, second division, Coupe de France and Champions Trophy football match be played on May 5, definitively adopted by the French Parliament, “was very important to us”recalls the one who was 4 years old on the day of the tragedy. “This fight that took ten years to succeed” was the main demand of the collective. Tirelessly, the victims hitherto stumbled on the reluctance of the Professional Football League and the French Football Federation (FFF), embarrassed in the organization of their competitions. Therefore, these will be “much more peaceful, much more serene commemorations”insisted M.me Guidicelli.
“Players will wear a black armband”
“As soon as the date of May 5 was known and we qualified, it was obvious for us to ask UEFA to mark this match with a mark of commemoration”explained Jacques Cardoze, director of communication for OM, during a press conference organized on Tuesday by the club and the collective of victims. “UEFA has accepted the principle of a minute’s silence. The players will wear a black armband, a text will be read by the announcer and messages will be broadcast on the giant screens.added Mr. Cardoze.
“Here, the sun goes down and the mood rises… » After these few words spoken on May 5, 1992 by Michel Vivarelli, journalist at Radio France Corse, a great crash and a deafening silence occupied the antenna for several minutes. The north stand of the Armand-Cesari stadium in Furiani had just collapsed.
It was “a national tragedy, one of the darkest pages in sporting history [française] »underlined the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, in February 2021, during the adoption, by the National Assembly, of the text carried by a Corsican deputy.
So of course, there will be this Marseille-Feyenoord on Thursday. A meeting that Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region, or Jean-Charles Orsucci, mayor of Bonifacio, in southern Corsica, had called to move to another date, “out of respect for the memory of the victims”. Without success. “It’s a shame for the symbolisminsists M.me Guidicelli, but it will not change anything to our commemorations”, marked as every year by a ceremony of meditation at 4 p.m. in front of the stele, where the tribune collapsed. A mass will then be celebrated at Bastia Cathedral at 6 p.m.