Blame Is Spread for Soccer Riot
A Belgian parliamentary committee investigating the soccer stadium riot in which 38 persons were killed blamed game organizers and police as well as British fans for the tragedy.
In a report completed Saturday in Brussels, the committee unanimously criticized the Liverpool fans who triggered the panic rush of Italian fans at the European Cup final May 29 between Liverpool and Juventus Turin. But the report said organizational errors before the match and poor coordination between Brussels police and other law enforcement officials on handling the violence once it started were also factors.
The committee accused the Belgian Football Assn. of greed for selling black-market tickets that allowed British and Italian spectators to be seated together in Block Z, where the violence started.
The committee also criticized the condition of Heysel Stadium because one section collapsed under the weight of Italian fans fleeing the attacks of Liverpool fans.
While the committee was unanimous in these findings, it was split on the role of Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb. Some deputies, most from the opposition party, said they considered Nothomb partially responsible for the tragedy and announced that in next Friday’s debate in Parliament they would demand his resignation.
Arvidas Sabonis scored 22 points to lead the Soviet national team to a 97-71 over Indiana University in an exhibition basketball game at Tokyo.
It was the fourth loss in four exhibition games for Indiana, which trailed, 47-33, at halftime.
Steve Alford and Winston Morgan led Indiana with 14 points each.
Indiana Coach Bob Knight left the court three minutes before the end of the game, officials of the Japan Basketball Assn. said. There was no explanation.
Tom Howard of Ball State University hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning to lead the United States to a 6-5 victory over Japan in the final game of the 14th Japan-U.S. collegiate baseball championship series at Tokyo.
Japan, which had clinched its fifth title with a victory on Thursday, won the series, four games to three.
The United States trailed, 4-2, when Howard started a four-run sixth with his third homer of the series. Paul Meyers of the University of Nebraska belted a solo homer, his second home run in the series, in the first inning.
Keke Rosberg of Finland, in a Williams-Honda, won the pole for today’s French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, France, with an average speed of 140.56 m.p.h.
Nigel Mansell of Britain, a teammate of Rosberg, suffered a concussion when his car crashed at 200 m.p.h. He is out of today’s race.
Names in the News
The game in which former Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain had expected to pitch Saturday was rained out at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Former Harvard hockey coach Ralph (Cooney) Weiland, a member of the hockey Hall of Fame and a player on the first Boston Bruins team to win a Stanley Cup in 1929, died in Boston at 80.
Bobby Rahal, in a Budweiser March, averaged 131.695 m.p.h. to win the pole for today’s Grand Prix Indy car race at Cleveland.
