{"id":92945,"date":"2025-05-11T14:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T14:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/92945\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T14:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T14:34:13","slug":"ian-hambridge-tributes-40-years-after-death-of-forgotten-victim-of-football-hooliganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/92945\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Hambridge tributes 40 years after death of ‘forgotten victim’ of football hooliganism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 15-year-old died at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s ground when a wall collapsed at his first live match on May 11, 1985<\/p>\n

12:43, 11 May 2025Updated 12:44, 11 May 2025<\/p>\n

\"IanIan Hambridge, aged six or seven<\/p>\n

Tributes were today paid to a teenager who was dubbed the “forgotten victim” of English football’s darkest days on the 40th anniversary of his death.<\/p>\n

Ian Hambridge was just 15 when he died after a wall collapsed at Birmingham<\/a> City’s St Andrew’s ground on May 11, 1985.<\/p>\n

The schoolboy had travelled with friends from his home town of Northampton to watch Blues take on Leeds. It was the first game he had watched live.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Broad Street blocked by fire engines in early-morning fire drama<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But he never made it home as violence marred the match. It happened on the same day as the Bradford fire, which killed 56 fans as a blaze ripped through a wooden stand at Bradford City’s Valley Parade stadium.<\/p>\n

Ian’s late dad Vic told the Sunday Mercury<\/a> a decade ago, on the 30th anniversary of his death, that he believed that tragedy had overshadowed the loss of his son.<\/p>\n

\"IanIan Hambridge’s mother Ann pictured with husband Vic<\/p>\n

But he said in 2015 that he did not blame hooligans who clashed in scenes condemned by a senior police officer as the most terrifying experience of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much time has passed,\u201d said Vic, then aged 74. \u201cToo much has happened. They didn\u2019t know what they were doing – they were just kids. We don\u2019t blame them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Leeds posted on X: “No fan should ever go to a football game and not return. Never forgotten, on the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, we remember 15 year old Ian Hambridge who sadly passed away. Rest in peace, Ian.”<\/p>\n

\"TheA plaque at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s stadium remembering Ian Hambridge <\/p>\n

A plaque is also in place at St Andrew’s dedicated to Ian’s memory.<\/p>\n

Vic and his wife Anne previously recalled every second of the anxious wait for their son\u2019s return as TV cameras relayed images of the carnage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the railway club,\u201d Vic said, \u201cand they put the news on. We expected Ian to be home at seven. When he didn\u2019t arrive, I went looking for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back to the train station, then we rang the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

A knock on the door came soon after. \u201cThey came down,\u201d said Anne, \u201cand said there was a report that a young lad had been injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me and Vic to Birmingham Hospital, we got there about 1am. The doctor told us. It was wrong place, wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, 145 policemen were injured, 40 fans were treated at East Birmingham Hospital and a dozen more at Birmingham Accident Hospital.<\/p>\n

Retired Det Chief Supt Mick Treble described the terrible scenes. \u201cIt was the most terrifying experience I had in my police career,\u201d he said. \u201cThe intensity, the anger, the violence shown by Leeds fans was something else. They were throwing coins at us, officers were getting slashed over the face when they hit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 15-year-old died at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s ground when a wall collapsed at his first live match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,748,393,4884,16,15,7830],"class_list":{"0":"post-92945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-west-midlands-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114489698841402816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}