In Rothen ignites on RMC, Wednesday in Bastia, Jérôme Rothen, Pascal Olmeta, Jean-Michel Larqué, Didier Grassi and Hervé Béroud recalled the tragedy of Furiani, which occurred on May 5, 1992. They testify, 30 years later.
Thirty years after the Furiani disaster, Rothen ignites relocated Wednesday evening to the Bastia stadium. On May 5, 1992, 19 people lost their lives in the collapse of a temporary stand, built especially for the semi-final of the Coupe de France which was to be played between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille. The accident also left more than 2,300 injured. On this occasion, actors, witnesses and victims of the time testified on the antenna of RMC to tell this drama with Jérôme Rothen, player of Bastia from 2011 to 2013.
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· Witnesses
Pascal Olmetaformer OM goalkeeper, trained and born in Bastia.
· Jean-Michel LarqueRMC Sport consultant, former commentator for TF1.
· Didier Grassiformer journalist for RMC Sport, representative of the group of victims of May 5.
· Herve BeroudDeputy CEO of Altice Media, former reporter for RTL.
· The atmosphere before the tragedy:
Pascal Olmeta: « All of Corsica was waiting for OM to arrive to play this semi-final. Everyone was waiting for that. It must have been a party. We can see this stand which is higher than what we had ever seen. ( … When we arrive with the bus, we arrive through the big door, we go down and we pass under the shields. Everyone had come up to bombard us! You see the tubulars under the supporters. Personally, I said to myself It was going to be crazy. When I go out to warm up, even the kids insulted me, even though I’m from Bastia! No one thought it was going to happen.
Didier Grassi« We weren’t worried. We had seen the setting up of this stand a few weeks before in Albertville for the Olympics (winter 1992, editor’s note). Everyone said there was nothing to worry about. The security commissions had given the green light. I had been on the platform for 2 p.m., we saw people who continued to work, but we were so enthusiastic and euphoric that we didn’t ask ourselves any questions.
Herve Beroud: « The atmosphere was crazy, it was shaking in the stands. I did my 8 p.m. flash for RTL, we saw a crazy passion. But frankly, at no time did we think it was dangerous and we had to leave. »
The collapsing of the grandstand:
Jean-Michel Larque« We have no worries. There were four huge pillars, we were at the base of one of them. When we take the air, it’s as if a jet plane passed us in the back. There is a breath, a moment of surprise. We don’t quite know what is going on. Although I have the helmet on my head, I turn around: there is nothing left at five or six bays behind me. There is no longer a stand. I hear screams. I take off my helmet and I pass under what is left of this tubular stand. I stay there for 45 seconds, and I have the It feels like an eternity. And I see. I go back up and settle down next to Thierry (Roland). Between the time when I went down and when I went back up, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor (which presented the JT of TF1) was notified. He gives the antenna to Thierry. I was not in a commentator position. Then I said to Thierry: “We have to fear that there are not only injured people”. Those were pretty much my only words of the evening. »
Pascal Olmeta: « We are in the locker room when we hear a noise. Like a passing Mirage. Someone kicks the door hard and says: « Disaster, disaster, the stand has collapsed! » Me, the first , I run because I had my family in the stand. When I leave, I see that the stand has disappeared, that people have pushed the fence to enter the lawn. Everything is linked, you become aware. I pass behind and I see what is happening.(…) The disaster has never left these families who have suffered a lot. We were there, we did not believe it, and yet the reality was there. What we experienced that night, not even a movie would have done. Helicopters were landing on the lawn. My first sight, when I came out, was a kid who was lying with a dislocated shoulder. When I turned my head, I saw the people in the middle of the whole collapsed stand ».
Herve Beroud: « I lost consciousness. I have no memory of the precise moment when the stand collapsed. I was inanimate for a while on the lawn. The people from TF1 at the time took care of me on the lawn. I woke up later, while I was being evacuated in the fire truck. I asked what was happening, what the score had been. Then I was repatriated to Marseille in the night ».
Didier Grassi« I remember being sucked in. I’m not fainting, but I have a blackout. I haven’t passed out. Photos show I’m bloody. I had tremendous pain in my left side. I was hospitalized for two months. »
The aftermath of the drama and the ban on French matches on May 5:
Herve Beroud: « I was with Jean-Baptiste Dumas, my colleague and close friend. We were the two special correspondents of RTL. He was a correspondent in Marseille. We met to cover this meeting. It was also a party for us It happened what happened. I learned the next morning that Jean-Baptiste had been evacuated on his side, but that he was very seriously injured. He was in a coma for several weeks. His life was very difficult during the two years following the disaster. So difficult that he decided to end his life, because his life had become hell, in 1994 ».
Didier Grassi: « No more French games on May 5, that’s a huge relief for us. Personally, I would have preferred the French football authorities to make that decision. Unfortunately, we never had an interlocutor who really knew how to listen to us. Whenever there has been progress, it has been through policies. It is a law that now engraves in stone this decision, promised in the aftermath of the tragedy. People have often told us that the risk is to forget the disaster by not playing. But we prove that we are still talking about it, by not playing and by demonstrating around this tragedy. For 20 years, it was a bit muffled on the side of the French football authorities ».
Jerome Rothen: « It’s a big victory. We made sure that we talk about it again every May 5. I had a role here that went beyond being a player. I was an international, captain, so it was close to my heart. This gave me access to direct discussions with the president of the federation, of the League. But each time, I was told that it was none of their business ».
Jean-Michel Larque: « When we left the next day, there was the drama, and the reaction of the president of the FFF at the time (Jean Fournet-Fayard) said everything about the lack of courage of the French leaders. He was caught in the storm. The Furiani disaster was a major factor in his resignation. »
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