France: 30 years after the Furiani tragedy, the survivors have forgotten nothing
On May 6, 1992, the day after the collapse of a stand at the Armand-Cesari stadium, in Furiani, Corsica.
18 people lost their lives in this tragedy.
AFP - ERIC CABANIS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
On May 5, 1992, the north stand of the Armand-Cesari stadium in Furiani, Corsica, collapsed ten minutes before the start of a football match between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille.
The tragedy left 18 dead and 2,357 injured.
Time passes, but the event is marked in the flesh of the survivors.
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With our correspondent in Marseille,
Yoram Melloul
On May 5, 1992, Didier Grassi followed the Bastia-OM match from the places reserved for the press, at the very top of the temporary stand.
This stand that collapsed at the Furiani stadium
.
“
I especially remember this feeling of being pulled towards the ground, then a black hole for two or three hours.
Then enormous pain all over the left side with multiple fractures of the pelvis, elbows, ruptured ligaments and head trauma
,” he says.
⚫️ 𝟎𝟓.𝟎𝟓.𝟗𝟐 ⚫️ @Collectif5mai92
Era un 5 di maghju... 30 anni sò passati ma u dulore è e lacrime sò sempre quì...
Think, cù assai emuzione, à tutte e vittime, à i feriti, e so family è tutti quelli tocchi da stu dolu...
A Corsica ùn if scurderà mai...#InMemoria pic.twitter.com/cy3x7HIEnr
– SC Bastia (@SCBastia) May 4, 2022
But the hardest thing is to know that others did not survive.
Avi Assouly, long star radio commentator of OM matches, spent 21 days in a coma following the tragedy: “
Sometimes we ask ourselves the question: “Why not me?”.
It is complicated.
The nights are complicated.
It's in me, it's indelible, it's a trace, it's incredible.
It's in the head.
It's in the body, mostly.
I can't stay up for long, I have to sit down.
That's life, I'm alive.
That's what you have to say.
I'm alive.
Thanks my God.
Today I have 30 years of bonus because normally, I had been put a sheet over my head.
»
This Thursday, May 5, on the occasion of the semi-final of the Europa League Conference OM-Feyenoord Rotterdam which takes place at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, a minute of silence will be respected and the days will wear a black armband.
𝟎𝟓.𝟎𝟓.𝟗𝟐
30 years we will never forget 🙏
Tribute to the victims of the Furiani drama 🖤 pic.twitter.com/H4w7bG31CV
– Olympique de Marseille (@OM_Officiel) May 5, 2022
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