Thirty years after a night that scarred football, when 39 people died moments before the Italian side took on Liverpool in the 1985 European Cup final, there are moves to in Turin to mark the loss

Juventus Football Club of Turin – one of the world’s most prestigious sides, and an Italian national institution – stands this week at a crossroads, epic even by the standards of its own illustrious history. A draw against Real Madrid on 13 May would see the team qualify for the European Cup final, which Juventus won on 29 May 1985 – the night 39 of its fans died when a wall collapsed at the aged Heysel Stadium in Brussels. The tragedy was triggered by Juventus supporters attempting to escape a violent charge by Liverpool supporters.

By a twist of fate, if Juve qualify again, the final tie in Berlin will be played just two days short of the 30th anniversary of a football massacre that has been all but airbrushed from mainstream memory in Britain.

For too many years, these 39 victims have been subject to scorn … attacking the black and white colours Juventus FC statement

On 29 May, Juventus will hold a commemorative mass at the church of the Grande Madre di Dio in Turin, modelled on the Pantheon. A statement by the club announcing the occasion is probably its strongest yet: “For too many years,” it reads, “these 39 victims have been subject to scorn with the sole aim of attacking the black-and-white colours. This is a vile action that has no place in any stadium or sporting debate. This anniversary should also serve as a period of reflection, ensuring that such behaviour is not repeated.”

In March, Juventus refused to allow England’s Football Association to lay a wreath at its new stadium before a friendly between Italy and England, lest it detract from Juventus’s own plans.

But behind the mass lie months of backstage planning and wrangling among followers of Juventus and the club, and 30 years of painful reckoning – and general failure to reckon – with what the title of a book by reporter Jean-Philippe Leclaire calls: Heysel: the Tragedy Juventus Tried to Forget.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest British Pathé newsreel recounts the Heysel tragedy

Juventus’s reference to “scorn” refers to the glee with which rivals in Italian football have taunted the club over the tragedy. In the minds of the victims’ relatives, that word scorn will apply also to two decades during which Liverpool – city, club and supporters – failed to formally apologise for what its fans had done. On the 20th anniversary in 2005, Bruno Guarini, who lost his son Alberto in the tragedy, said: “We’ve heard nothing from Liverpool or its supporters, no apology, no solidarity, nothing to say they did anything wrong.”

How Heysel's lost lives saved a sport Read more

But that year, by a twist of fate, Juventus drew Liverpool in the month of the anniversary: militant groups of Liverpool fans organised a mosaic reading Amicizia – friendship – across the Kop, and an official delegation finally visited Turin. Liverpool captain Sami Hyypia joined his counterpart Alessandro del Piero to read out the names of the dead.

Juventus’s announcement of the 29 May mass says it is the result of “a heartfelt and sincere dialogue with the Association for the Families of Heysel Victims”, but thereby hangs a tale. Soon after the killings, a group of victims’ relatives was established in Arezzo by Otello Lorentini, whose son Roberto, a doctor, was killed while trying to administer first aid to other fans. The association had become a focal point for those who felt the club had done too little for the bereaved and wounded.

The campaign for justice and memory was always championed by Juventus’s organised fans, the ultràs – who gathered in groups with names such as Viking or Drughi (from the Droogs of A Clockwork Orange) on their favoured terrace, the Curva Filadelfia. “We were,” says one Drughi veteran, Salvatore, “always in the front line for truth and justice, to get the dead at Heysel honoured in the proper way.”

I was nine. I watched on television and saw the horror in my parents' faces. I grew up that day Andrea Agnelli, Juventus president

The club’s reticence changed dramatically in 2010 when Andrea Agnelli – nephew of the man whose name is synonymous with Juventus, the late Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli – took over as president. Agnelli presided over a moving 25th anniversary ceremony at which he said: “I was nine years old – I watched on television and saw the horror in my parents’ faces. I grew up that day, became mature.”

Agnelli ensured a beautiful monument at the new stadium of 39 falling stars to represent the dead, and at its opening in 2011 the words “In Memory” were picked out in fire across the pitch. “The atmosphere was transformed,” says Beppe Franzo, one of the veteran fans’ leaders, who has written two books about the Curva and the legacy of Heysel. “The club was involved, the taboo lifted.”

“Juventus seemed finally to have made peace with Heysel,” says Domenico Laudadio, designer and curator of the relatives’ association’s “virtual museum”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Spectators flee the Heysel stadium terraces as the crush (rear left) continues on 29 May 1985: 39 people died. The cup final was still played, and Juventus won 1-0. English clubs were banned from European competition for five years. Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP

For this month’s commemorations, Franzo and Laudadio set to work on projects more ambitious than the mass. One was a striking theatrical production designed by Laudadio, recited by actor Omar Rottoli. It envisaged strong imagery – Calvary, a “river of blood” – and a passage that squarely blames Liverpool fans and European football’s governing body Uefa for the massacre.

Franzo had for two years laid plans for a day of collective memory in Turin, to include Laudadio’s text, which “would bring together everyone: fans, relatives and the Juventus club, as it should be. It was also to include our partisans of both extreme right and left, united by their feelings of antagonism. A commemoration from the Curva and the street that belonged to us all: every fan, every family, and Juventus.”

Neither plan came to fruition. Laudadio’s drama failed to win the club’s backing: “They totally modified the rhythm, form and words,” he says. “The relatives’ association has decided not to accept the changed text.”

Otello Lorentini died last year, but his association was relaunched this January by his grandson Andrea Lorentini, who issued an impassioned plea from Arezzo: “The memories of Heysel, sadly, are solitary ones (I lost my own father there), and we’re happy every time anyone wants to share it with us. We thank Juventus, but we claim our role as guarantors of the memory … We’ll participate in the mass for the fallen; as our only shared [anniversary] moment with the club”.

Franzo approved of Juventus’s script changes, but counsels: “If we’re not united, leave it. We know who is to blame, we know who did it – now is the time for something more ambitious.” His vision is that: “On one hand, there is the private memory of each of the families, to be respected. But we also need collective tribute, collective commemoration and collective memory, so that what happened can belong to the history of Juventus and all its fans, as well as the private memories of those who suffered loss.” He seeks official sanction from Turin city council this week for a trip to Brussels to lay wreaths.

“To lose your son in that way,” says Guarini in Puglia, “killed by those people, is beyond sorrow. It is something time cannot cure. It leaves you dead in your heart.”

A young fan unborn at the time, Alessandro Borghi, added: “Ironically, the families of 96 people in Liverpool know the feeling well. But still we’re mostly forgotten.”