The Academy and the memory of Furiani
The young residents of the training center were visited by Corinne Mattei, actress and director, whose short film “May 5, 1992” describes the Furiani disaster in a unique way. Enough to raise awareness among members of the Academy about an event that marked the history of French football.
May 5, 1992. Corsica is celebrating. Sporting Club de Bastia, then resident in the second division, is preparing to challenge Olympique de Marseille in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. The event then aroused unprecedented enthusiasm on the Island of Beauty. In a hurry, the Claude Papi stand was destroyed and damaged by a metal structure which should enable the island club to meet an unprecedented demand for tickets to attend the match.
A few minutes before the match, what should have been a party turned into a nightmare when the new stand at the Armand-Cesari stadium collapsed. The toll, 18 dead and 2,357 injured, is the heaviest ever recorded on French territory for a sporting event.
“May 5, 1992”, the moving look of Corinne Mattei
Corinne Mattei lived in her chair the drama, since her brother “fell” as the unfortunate witnesses of this evening of horror say. It is to him that “May 5, 1992” is dedicated., a captivating and moving short film that also offers a modest look at the disaster. “I made the bet to tell a drama through the joy that it caused upstream and that it should have continued to arouse after the fact, explained the actress and director to the members of the Academy, gathered at the end last week to watch his film. My but was to offer a different vision, without putting aside the sadness that all this has caused, but keeping the image of an island that wanted to live a big party.
Gathered in the auditorium of the Performance Center, the Monegasques thus attended a private screening, in the company of their educators, Sébastien Muet, the Director of the Academy and Damien Perrinelle, the coach of the Elite Group. “I can still tell you where I was, who I was with and what I ate that day, explained Sébastien Muet to the residents. It is an event that marked us all and that we must remember. You weren’t born but that also contributes to the constitution of your footballing culture because Furiani is a separate chapter.
Pascal Olmeta, a privileged witness for the younger generations
The young Monegasques thus followed the adventures of Romain (played by Marc Andria Sanna), a kid from Bastia with a mischievous gaze who no longer sleeps at the idea of accompanying his father (played by Nicolas Poli) to the stadium to support his protégés .
Romain’s mother (Caroline Fostinelli) also has trouble sleeping. But not for the same reasons. The work to expand the enclosure had barely been completed when the day of the match arrived and, from all over the island, people wondered if security would be guaranteed. This doubt always escorted the life of the survivors, who are still many to evoke with goosebumps this May 5, 1992.
This is the case of Pascal Olmeta who, although goalkeeper of OM at the time, was happy to return to his island for the meeting. Present at the Performance Center, the former goalkeeper with a blank voice when he remembers “the smoke, the cries, the locker room doors that serve as stretchers and the crying of the children”.
At the time of the tragedy, Lisandru’s father has only one concern, to inquire about the state of health of his daughter who, fortunately, did not come to the game. “This drama lives in the lives of many people and it is very important that we remember it. We don’t want to go through that again. It is also important to know that at the time we did not have a psychological unit at our disposal. When we had just experienced something that would mark us for life.
Following the broadcast of the short film, which had been presented at the last Cannes festival a few days after the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the disaster, the members of the Academy were able to discuss with the protagonists and thus learn more on the Furiani disaster, a painful episode but a duty of memory necessary for budding footballers.