30 years after the Furiani tragedy, the survivors have forgotten nothing

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30 years after the Furiani tragedy the survivors have forgotten

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.

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 pains all over the left side with multiple fractures of the pelvis, elbows, ruptured ligaments and head trauma “, he confides.

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.

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