Kenny

I regret to announce that Kenny Dalglish

told the board yesterday of his wish to retire as team manager.

Ever since then, the board have made strenuous attempts

to make him change his mind.

Well, obviously, I've been involved

in football since I've been 17 and for 20 years really

I've been with the two most successful clubs in Britain

and I've been...

I've been in the front line...

in... in... for 20 years.

And it's just really a result of 20 years' active involvement in football

at a very high and successful level

that really I'm...

kind of reached a person that's pushed himself to the limit.

Urn...

It's something that's taken rne a long time to come to.

When did you start thinking about it, Ken?

Do you want me to keep talking or are you going to interrupt?

But the most important thing...

and the worst decision I could have come to is not to have made a decision.

Dalglish!

Dalglish!

"You'll Never Walk Alone"

I got a phone call completely out the blue

from Peter Robinson

saying him and the chairman would like to come and have a word.

I said, 'Yeah, no problem.'

So I came.

They asked if I'd like to become manager.

I asked them 'Why?'

But they never told me why, really.

But that was it. That was my exit out of the dressing room

to being in isolation at the bottom of the corridor in the manager's office.

I'm afraid the news is very bad from Brussels.

Hooliganism has struck again

and I'm afraid the scenes are as bad as anything

we've seen for a long, long time.

Ah...

Generally speaking, whether we get beat in the football match

I'll have a quip or I'll laugh a bit but I'm not laughing tonight.

Thousands of Liverpool soccer fans are in Brussels

for tonight's European Cup Final against Juventus.

It will be the last for Liverpool's manager, Joe Fagan

who has announced that he is retiring whether his team win or lose.

I think it'll lift the team tonight more than anything.

They'll want to go out there tonight and really win it for Joe Fagan.

I was delighted by playing.

I was a footballer, I wanted to be a footballer.

Everybody knew Joe was retiring.

He was only doing it for two years.

Between them asking me to do it

and becoming the manager

I had exactly the same thought all the way through.

To win the game.

How you doing, mate? You OK?

Dig. Jocky. - How you doing? You alright?

Good to see you.

It seems that the manager's resignation has increased

the fans' determination to beat Juventus.

It could have a more unsettling effect on the players.

But there's nothing that the entire Liverpool contingent

would like more than to reward Joe Fagan's decades of service

with the European Cup.

Everyone was saying when we picked up our tickets, you know.

'We haven't got the whole end.

There's gonna be so-called neutral fans from Brussels in one section.'

Brussels had a massive Italian community.

We knew those tickets would go on the black market.

We could foresee problems.

It was supposed to be, right, neutrals in that little bit here

and then there was a chicken-wire fence and then the Liverpool fans.

At 10 to six we go and have a look at the pitch. We picked up...

it was like a half brick.

Who brings a half brick with them into the stadium?

In actual fact, it was the stadium that was crumbling.

And so you sort of went, 'Hmmm, this ain't great.'

A group of Liverpool fans decided that they were gonna charge

across the terrace into the corner.

It caused a wave of crush and a wall collapsed.

Good evening, this is Clive Tyldesley

in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels

where Europe's premier football match of the season

has now been completely overshadowed by scenes of violence

the likes of which I've never seen in a football ground before.

We were right beside where it was all happening.

We saw the wall come down and one of the girls

went outside and above.

It was horrendous.

Well, for the last 50 minutes the Heysel Stadium

in Brussels, the capital of Belgium

has been a sickening and bewildering sight.

There was rumours in the dressing room

and then the rumours were changing every five minutes.

How long were you in there before you went back out?

Must have been over an hour.

Really the game was an insignificance. - Yeah.

But they just said...

I suppose that was... they thought that was the best way

to see it through was to have the game.

What that must have been like for young men

to actually have a consciousness and an understanding

of what the hell was going on around them

and to react in such a way that they could just play

a normal game of football like ever before.

And the Liverpool team appear.

And all credit to them.

I walked out to the field and I looked left.

You could see the carnage, and there were still ambulances there.

We... we played.

That was the decision that was taken.

And we know that they were playing in a daze.

Subconsciously you know that there's something happened, isn't there?

You're not oblivious to what's going on round about

although you don't know the facts.

Between two.

Yes, a penalty's gonna be given.

They get a penalty awarded...

which Platini put away.

Out by Scirea.

And Liverpool's run of success

in European Cup Finals comes to an end.

But this is not a night when football will be remembered.

The official figures of the tragedy

which occurred before a ball was kicked.

36 people killed, more than 200 injured

and 15 of them seriously.

How would any of us respond to a situation like that?

It's a football match. It's a joyous occasion.

It's the biggest game of the season.

And people are dying around me.

We were up until late and just talking about how could it happen.

The next day I went to the shops and actually, I was embarrassed.

I felt really ashamed. It was a horrible time.

The majority of fans didn't behave reprehensibly.

The majority of fans condemned those who did.

And Liverpool fans didn't have a history of that kind of violence

and it besmirched the club's name.

It reduced the club incredibly in the public eye.

It had massive consequences.

And quite rightly, Liverpool was banned from European tournaments.

We came back to Liverpool.

Joe Fagan was crying and everybody was crying.

I mean, it was, like, horrible. It was a horrible, horrible time.

Do you think the game should have been played?

It wasn't for rne to make the opinion, was it?

We were asked to play and we played.

A lot of people, though, thought it was a bad decision.

Well, we didn't realise what had happened before the game.

You had no idea that people had been killed?

No.

It's a shame really that something like that

the biggest club game in the world

and it's ended in disaster for so many people.

If it was difficult for me to deal with

it would have been much more difficult for the people who suffered a loss.

You've just got to deal with the hand you're dealt.

Your parents are the ultimate.

They shape your life.

They mould you into what you become later on in your life.

I really enjoyed growing up.

Everyone was in the same boat.

Everybody got out and played.

A lot of young families there.

And a lot of friends.

I think it was always better to do somebody a good turn

than a bad turn.

My sister Carol and I were brought up

with very good family values.

I'm supposed to run out and throw my arms around wide...

How are we? - Hiya. How are you?

Good. Nay problems. - Yeah.

The old house there. I cannae believe just how long it's been.

It's just so familiar. - It is.

There's an awful lot of memories round about here.

Oh, I know. - They all come back when you come back.

- I thought I was alright. - No, no, no, you weren't.

Not when you were young, really young.

I thought I was OK. - Up until you were about five.

My mum stayed at home and ran the house.

My dad went to work.

He was a diesel engine fitter.

I think my dad first introduced me to a ball before I could walk.

He used to hold me and let me have a kick at a ball.

He liked you to sit up straight at the table

and not leave the table till you'd finished your meal.

A lot of the time it was only speak if you're spoken to type of thing

if you were in adult company. - A 'yes' and a 'thank you.'

Yeah, yeah, so... - 'Please.'

It's great though. It's really good to be back.

From a very young age I wanted to be a footballer.

I just loved the football.

One of the boys' dads made goals for us.

He had somewhere to get nets from.

We had a great time, really.

Most of your spare time was spent playing football.

There's so much change isn't there? It's so different.

Everything's... Mind you, it is 50 years ago, though.

It is 50 years, I was thinking that coming over.

Dad was the orange man, wasn't he?

He was the man who brought you the half-time oranges.