1971 Ibrox disaster

Crowd crush at a Glasgow football game January 2021 June 2014 Ibrox Disaster, 1971 The 1971 Ibrox Disaster Memorial (geograph 5756553).jpg yes A memorial to those who died in the disaster, including a statue of then-captain John Greig, unveiled in January 2001 1971 01 02 y Ibrox Park, Glasgow, Scotland 55 51 13 N 04 18 25 W type:landmark_region:GB inline,title 66 > 200 The 1971 Ibrox disaster, also known as the Second Ibrox Disaster, was a crush among the crowd at an Old Firm football game (Rangers v Celtic), which led to 66 deaths and more than 200 injuries. It happened on 2 January 1971 on an exit stairway at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the worst football disaster in Britain until the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, England, in 1989. The stadium's owner, Rangers FC, was later ruled to be at fault in a sheriff's judgement on one of the deaths. Rangers did not dispute this ruling and was sued for damages in 60 other cases brought by relatives of the dead. Background The first disaster at Ibrox occurred during a 1902 home international match between Scotland and England. The rear of the wooden West Tribune Stand collapsed due to heavy rainfall the previous night, causing 25 deaths and more than 500 injuries.Sheils Robert The fatalities at the Ibrox disaster of 1902 The Sports Historian 18 2 148–155 British Society of Sports History November 1998 http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportsHistorian/1998/sh182k.pdf 17 May 2007 10.1080/17460269809445801 Robert Sheils 30 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081030180042/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportsHistorian/1998/sh182k.pdf dead thumb|Ibrox Park in 1910, with the Copland Road exit at the far corner of the stadium. An equivalent staircase can be seen descending the nearest corner. During 1963, concerns were raised about the safety of the stairway adjacent to passageway 13, colloquially known as Stairway 13, the exit closest to Copland Road subway station.https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.736382285277646&lat=55.8538&lon=-4.3071&layers=170&b=1 OS 1:1,250, 1944–1967 National Library of Scotland Explore georeferenced maps 18 July 2018 6 October 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201006094833/https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.736382285277646&lat=55.8538&lon=-4.3071&layers=170&b=1 dead It was documented that the stairs provided very little freedom of movement due to crowd pressure; many were lifted off their feet by the crowd and had no choice in which lane they were going to use, or at what pace.Dickie JF Major Crowd Catastrophes Safety Science 1995 18 4 315 10.1016/0925-7535(94)00048-8 On 16 September 1961, two people were killed in a crush on the stairway. In 1967, eight spectators were injured when leaving the stadium. In 1969, 26 were injured in an accident on Stairway 13 during egress. No measures were taken to consult a professional firm to discuss the potential dangers from crowds on Stairway 13 following these events. Subsequent to the 1961 accident, Rangers had by then spent a total of £150,000 (UK 150000 1969 -5 eq £) on improvements to Ibrox, a significant sum of money for the time.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=L5JAAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245%2C4244012 Directors evidence on stairway safety James Murphy The Glasgow Herald 23 February 1971 5 2 January 2018 Events The disaster occurred on Saturday, 2 January 1971, when 66 people were killed in a crush as supporters tried to leave the stadium. The match was an Old Firm game (Rangers v Celtic) and was attended by more than 80,000 fans.https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/sep/04/forgotten-story-rangers-1972-european-cup-winners The forgotten story of … Rangers' 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup win Harris Daniel The Guardian 4 September 2014 19 January 2018Rangers 1 — 1 Celtic, Scottish League (02/01/1971) [Rangers team] http://www.fitbastats.com/rangers/game.php?gameid=76166 Fitbastats 18 July 2018Rangers 1 — 1 Celtic, Scottish League (02/01/1971) [Celtic team] http://www.fitbastats.com/celtic/game.php?gameid=76166 Fitbastats 18 July 2018 In the 90th minute, Celtic took a 1–0 lead through Jimmy Johnstone, but in the final moments of the match, Colin Stein scored an equaliser for Rangers. As thousands of spectators were leaving the ground by Stairway 13, it appears that someone may have fallen, causing a massive chain reaction pile-up of people.On this day — 2 January — 1971: Disaster at Ibrox 2 January 1971 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/january/2/newsid_3368000/3368963.stm BBC 22 September 2012Hodgman John 'Singing and dancing to their deaths': football's forgotten tragedy https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/dec/03/rangers-football-forgotten-tragedy-ibrox-stadium-disaster-glasgow The Guardian 3 December 2020 6–8 Initially, there was speculation that some fans left the ground slightly early when Celtic scored, but then turned back when they heard the crowd cheering when Stein scored the equaliser, colliding with fans leaving the ground when the match ended.1971: Sixty-six die in Scottish football disaster 2 January 1971 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/2/newsid_2478000/2478305.stm BBC 22 September 2012 The official inquiry into the disaster indicated that there was no truth in this hypothesis, however, as all the spectators were heading in the same direction at the time of the incident. Most of the deaths were caused by compressive asphyxia, with bodies being stacked up to 6 ft m in deep in the area. More than 200 other fans were injured. Kenny Dalglish, then a Celtic player, was in the stands when the tragedy occurred."Kenny Dalglish: Hillsborough families are magnificent". Liverpool Echo. Dalglish was also present at the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters, in 1985 and 1989 respectively, with Liverpool."Kenny Dalglish on Liverpool – the club, the fans, the city, and Hillsborough". BBC. Victims Sixty-six people died on the day at the stadium as a result of injuries incurred during the disaster. Of those who died, all were aged under 50; 61 were under 40, 49 were under 30, 33 were under 20 and one was aged under 10. The loss included many children, five of whom, Peter Easton, Martin Paton, Mason Phillips, Brian Todd and Douglas Morrison, were schoolmates from the same town of Markinch in Fife. The loss also included 31 teenagers, including the only female victim, 18-year-old Margaret Ferguson of Maddiston, Stirlingshire. The youngest child to die was 9-year-old Nigel Pickup of Liverpool. More than 200 people were reported to have suffered injuries.https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/names-rangers-1971-ibrox-disaster-15621376 The names of the 66 killed in the 1971 Ibrox disaster Craig Williams Glasgow Live 2 January 2020 29 December 2020 Age range Men Women Total 0–9 101 10–19 31132 20–29 16016 30–39 12012 40–49 505 Totals 65166 Aftermath section December 2017 The disaster spurred the UK government to look into safety at sports grounds. In February 1971, Scottish judge Lord Wheatley was asked to conduct an inquiry.Wheatley heads safety inquiry 1 Glasgow Herald Glasgow 5 February 1971 https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IJJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5923%2C842579 His findings, published in May 1972, formed the basis for the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (Green Guide), first published in 1973. thumb|left|Exterior view of all-seater Ibrox Stadium, with Stairway 13 corner in the foreground (2008) The 1971 disaster led to a huge redevelopment of Ibrox Park, spearheaded by the then-manager Willie Waddell, who visited Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion for inspiration.http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/imperious-ibrox-is-a-ground-for-celebration-one-hundred-years-on-the-change-has-been-total-but-memories-remain-as-clear-as-the-day-1.256410 Imperious Ibrox is a ground for celebration Bob Crampsey Herald Scotland 22 December 1999 18 November 2011 After three years' reconstruction work, with three sides of the ground being replaced by modern all-seater stands, Ibrox Park was converted to a 44,000-capacity stadium by 1981.Inglis Simon Football Grounds of Britain 1996 Collins Willow 0-00-218426-5 468 Further work in the 1990s increased the stadium capacity to 50,000, and Ibrox was subsequently awarded UEFA five-star status. The Scottish folk singer-songwriter Matt McGinn wrote a song called "The Ibrox Disaster" as a tribute to the people who died in the tragic event. Investigation A fatal accident inquiry, held in Glasgow, opened on 15 February 1971.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KJJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3524%2C2678987 Ibrox disaster inquiry opens to-day The Glasgow Herald 15 February 1971 1 2 January 2019 It lasted seven days, although the jury of four men and three women had been instructed not to make recommendations on safety precautions at football grounds, because an inquiry led by Lord Wheatley would be examining this.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MJJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5150%2C4510772 Rangers urged to seek advice on stairway James Murphy The Glasgow Herald 24 February 1971 5 2 January 2019 Litigation Sheriff James Irvine Smith, in his statement after a civil damages trial raised at Glasgow Sheriff Court in May 1974 by the widow of one of the Ibrox victims, ruled: "The said accident was due to the fault and negligence of the defenders, Rangers F.C.".Source: National Records of Scotland, Ref: SC36/1972/1/3 Interlocutors (viewing by appointment only). Smith found Rangers guilty on four counts in the case of the death of Charles Dougan, a 31-year-old boilermaker from Clydebank who died, as did 56 others, from traumatic asphyxia. After hearing of the series of accidents on Stairway 13 including September 1961 when there were 70 people injured and two deaths, September 1967 when eleven people were taken to hospital, and January 1969 when 29 people were injured, Sheriff Irvine Smith stated, So far as the evidence is concerned, the Board never so much as considered that it ought to apply its mind to the question of safety on that particular stairway [...] and would appear – I put it no higher – to have proceeded on the view that if the problem was ignored long enough it would eventually go away [...] Indeed it goes further than this because certain of their actions can only be interpreted as a deliberate and apparently successful attempt to deceive others that they were doing something, when in fact they were doing nothing. Sheriff Irvine Smith damages statement. In the case of Charles Dougan and a further 60 cases brought by relatives of the dead, Rangers did not dispute the findings of Sheriff Irvine Smith and instead merely disputed the calculation of the damages, as can be seen from the appeal judgement of the Sheriff Principal.Source: National Records of Scotland, Ref: SC36/1972/1/3 Interlocutors (viewing by appointment only) In his book, Irvine Smith states that almost 40 years after his decision, he was viewed with disapproval by some Rangers-supporting friends, who accused him of "disloyalty".Law, Life and Laughter; A personal verdict Irvine Smith Black & White publishers 2011 978-1-84502-356-0 Legacy For some years after the 1971 disaster, there was only a small plaque at the corner of the ground where it happened. However, in 1995, Rangers announced plans to commemorate the 66 fans killed in the disaster.21 December 1995 Memorial to Ibrox disaster planned The Herald http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12071152.Memorial_to_Ibrox_disaster_planned/ 2 February 2017Ryan Paul 29 November 2000 Rangers plan memorial to victims of Ibrox disaster The Daily Telegraph London https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/2993628/Rangers-plan-memorial-to-victims-of-Ibrox-disaster.html dead 4 May 2010 https://archive.today/20120630184052/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/2993628/Rangers-plan-memorial-to-victims-of-Ibrox-disaster.html 30 June 2012 On 2 January 2001, the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, a larger monument was unveiled at the corner of the Bill Struth Main Stand and the Copland Road Stand. The monument contains blue plaques displaying the names of each person killed in all three incidents. A statue of John Greig, the Rangers captain at the time of the 1971 disaster, stands on top of the monument. In 2011, the 40th anniversary of the disaster was commemorated before the Old Firm game on 2 January 2011 when a one-minute silence was observed before the game. Both teams wore black armbands as a sign of respect and were led out by John Greig and Billy McNeill, the respective club captains at the time of the disaster (although McNeill had not played due to injury). See also 1902 Ibrox disaster Burnden Park disaster Luzhniki disaster – in Moscow on 20 October 1982 Bradford City stadium fire Hillsborough disaster List of disasters of the United Kingdom and preceding states Heysel Stadium disaster References External links Stairway 13 – The Ibrox disaster, 2001 BBC Scotland documentary Names of casualties and their ages The five boys who didn’t come home: The story of the 1971 Ibrox Disaster Category:Disasters in Glasgow Category:Association football disasters Category:1971 disasters in the United Kingdom Category:1970s in Glasgow Category:Crowd collapses and crushes in stadiums Category:History of football in Scotland Category:1970–71 in Scottish football Category:Crowd collapses and crushes in the United Kingdom Category:Fatal accident inquiries Category:Old Firm matches Category:Govan Category:Sport deaths in Scotland Category:Scottish Football League matches Category:January 1971 in the United Kingdom de:Ibrox-Katastrophe es:Desastres de Ibrox it:Disastro dell'Ibrox ja:アイブロックスの惨事