André Daina, who played 4 times for the Swiss national team, took charge of one match in the 1986 World Cup, one in the 1984 European Championships and in the European Cup final in 1985. That last one was the match Juventus - Liverpool, aka the Heysel Disaster.

Heysel

Built in 1930, the Heysel stadium in Brussels was crumbling. Grass grew through the cracks in the terraces, fans were separated by flimsy wired fences, the poles against which people would have to lean were coming loose.

Sector Z was filled with non-hard core Italian fans: fathers, mothers, children, older people. They had entered the section through a small door. Next to sector Z were the Liverpool fans who had managed to bring cases of beer and who threw their tickets over the wall to let their mates get in as well. About half an hour before the match drunk Liverpool fans crashed through the fence and the Italians ran towards a wall, that collapsed. 38 people died. 32 of them Italians (one 11 year old boy).

The inadequate Belgian police actually clubbed people who came running to try to save the wounded.

Meanwhile a discussion had started about whether to abandon the match, most players didn't want to play, but UEFA told them to proceed.

The match was played while the dead bodies were put under sheets in the stadium car park.

Juventus won 1-0, by a penalty by Michel Platini who celebrated his goal. Some said the penalty was awarded by Andre Daina just to let Juventus win.
After the match some Juventus players, with Platini in front, ran a lap of honour as if nothing had happened. The same Platini who later became the UEFA president, as we all know.

Not only the players and the team managers could have decided not to play, Andre Daina could have refused too.


Thanks to John Foot: Winning at all costs