OM will pay tribute to the victims against Feyenoord, with a minute of silence and a black armband

“I saw terrible things. I still do not explain why this date took 30 years to decide. It remains a bad memory. With my friend Bernard Casoni, we saw incredible things. For a few francs more, we could have avoided arriving at this tragedy, it is serious. Fortunately, I was close to the end of my career, it was very difficult to resume football after that date. This testimony from Daniel Xuereb, a former Olympique de Marseille player present on May 5, 1992, recalls the importance of the duty to remember the Furiani disaster.

For the first time since this tragedy, the collective of the Victims of the Furiani Catastrophe will finally be able to “commemorate in a peaceful way, so as not to forget”. Appeasement finally possible thanks to the law adopted on October 14, 2021, which now means that no more professional football matches will be played in France on May 5. The fruit of a fight of nearly 30 years.

Minute of silence and black armband

But it does not concern European matches, and Olympique de Marseille is playing its semi-final second leg against Feynoord Rotterdam on Thursday. “It was natural to do everything so that that evening, the spectators at the Vélodrome stadium would remember what happened on May 5, 1992. It was an OM match, it was not trivial. We have obtained a minute’s silence from UEFA, the players will wear a black armband, and messages will be broadcast on the giant screens. A text will also be read by the speaker before kick-off, ”announced Jacques Cardoze, OM’s communications director.

Other commemorations will take place until this weekend in Corsica, with a football tournament, a mass or even a play to mark 30 years “of the biggest disaster in French football”, as recalled Bastien Dumas-Paoli, vice-president of the association and son of a victim.