Bradford Fire: 25 Years On: How one horrific month in 1985 led to transformation of football in Britain forever

The year 1985 will forever been seen as the time when the troubled sport of football took its first steps along the road to modernisation. Richard Sutcliffe charts how the game changed.

IF ever a month symbolised the nadir of English football, it was May, 1985.

There was, of course, the Bradford fire, a wholly avoidable disaster that has since come to symbolise the casual attitude that football clubs often showed towards the safety of supporters.

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But May also saw the ugly spectre of hooliganism rear its head with tragic consequences at Birmingham on the same day as the fire. And then again at Heysel a little over a fortnight later.

One teenage life was lost at St Andrew's as a wall collapsed amid rioting between Leeds United thugs and their Blues counterparts in scenes that the subsequent official inquiry later described as "more clearly resembles the Battle of Agincourt rather than a football match".

In Belgium, 39 football fans, mostly Italian, were killed in the tumbling crush and resulting panic of a fatal charge by Liverpool fans ahead of the European Cup final.

Hillsborough was still four years away but, already, English football had become a killing field and it was clear something had to be done, both in terms of improving safety and tackling the hooliganism problem that had blighted the game for the best part of two decades.

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Change came in the form of an official inquiry led by Justice Popplewell, which controversially focused on both the Bradford fire and the violence at Birmingham despite the two being very different, and direct intervention from the Government.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had been shocked by footage of rioting by Millwall fans at Luton Town a couple of months before the end of the 1984-85 season, declared war on the 'hooligan problem' in the wake of Heysel.

There were, undoubtedly, other contributing factors to the disaster, including a dilapidated stadium, inadequate policing and unchecked ticket sales in the Belgian capital for a 'neutral' buffer zone that ended up being full of Italians.

But without the stampede of the Liverpool fans, the horror that followed could not have happened and Thatcher felt the time for action had arrived.

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She pressed for the introduction of ID cards for fans in an attempt to solve the problem, a plan that was later scuppered by Justice Taylor's report into the Hillsborough disaster.

Thatcher's desire to tackle the hooligans was understandable with their actions even before Heysel having turned the English into the pariahs of European football.

The catalogue of shame in previous months had included the infamous riot by Millwall fans at Luton and the Football Association ordering a Cup-tie between Leicester and Burton Albion to be replayed behind closed doors after the then-non-League club's goalkeeper had been knocked out by a missile.

In Yorkshire, the closing of the Elland Road terraces for a couple of games the previous season after Kevin Keegan had been hit by a missile did nothing to dissuade Leeds hooligans from bringing further shame on their club as serious disorder broke out at Huddersfield and Barnsley.

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Fears that the final day trip to already-promoted Birmingham on May 11 would turn into a bloodbath proved horribly correct as fans fought battles inside and outside St Andrew's.

Even pleadings by Eddie Gray, who had stopped his family attending away games the previous October for fears over their safety, could not halt the trouble with the United manager being pelted with missiles before beating a retreat to the dressing room.

So ferocious was the violence that the half-time interval had to be extended by almost three-quarters of an hour as Leeds chairman Leslie Silver offered to concede the game in an attempt to stop the trouble.

By the time the warring factions had finally been prised apart later that evening, police had made 125 arrests and 96 officers had been injured along with 80 supporters.

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Due to the Valley Parade fire that claimed 56 lives, the death of one teenager in Birmingham received scant coverage with the focus understandably being centred on Bradford.

However, once the shocking events of Heysel had been beamed around the world 18 days later, there was no denying hooliganism was out of control and that action was needed.

A swift ban from all European competition for English clubs soon followed as the Popplewell Inquiry into Bradford and Birmingham was extended to include the events in Brussels.

And it is in the subsequent findings of Lord Popplewell – and later Lord Justice Taylor's inquiry into Hillsborough – that the roots of the modern-day match-day experience in this country can be found.

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Sweeping reforms followed, particularly after Hillsborough when the football authorities finally seemed to accept the time for talking had passed.

Taylor is best remembered for the banning of the terraces in the top two divisions but he also recommended all perimeter fences be removed, ticket touting made illegal and the ordering of a major overhaul of all safety certificates.

Furthermore, every club had to appoint a safety officer – a post unheard of in 1985, even at the top clubs.

The drastic changes that followed Taylor undoubtedly ushered football into a brave new dawn where fan safety was of paramount importance.

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But that does not mean Popplewell's impact should be ignored with several strides being made in terms of safety at the nation's sports grounds.

Among his many recommendations was how all stadia holding more than 10,000 must conform to stringent safety standards with the fire authorities being given the power to close any stand they considered a risk.

Stewards also had to be trained in fire prevention, smoking was banned in combustible stands and all exits had to be manned throughout the game.

The move from the darkest era in English football history was underway – and not before time.

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And while it would be crass in the extreme to describe the subsequent changes for the better as being a legacy of that truly awful month in 1985, the one positive to take out of the horror that was Bradford, Birmingham and Heysel is that the chances of a repeat inside today's stadia is unthinkable.