Football Disasters: The moments we will never forget

Book excerpt: It seems that we can divide the world-history of football-related deaths into three periods. The early period, 1900-1959, contains from 0 to 3 tragedies per decade. Deaths were very rare - but were tremendously tragic when they happened. Take for instance the very first incident occurring on the 5th of April in 1902 at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, where Scotland played England in the British Home Championship. At the time it was considered to be the most prestigious international tournament in the world and would therefore draw a large audience. While the game was being played the newly built wooden West Stand broke under the weight of the excited crowd. People fell several meters down and on top of each other - resulting in 26 people dying and 517 being injured. Blame was put on the rain that had fallen the night before the game, causing the wooden construction to become unstable. Arena architects abandoned wood as material for higher audience facilities after this episode. But what caused the other disasters?