Luzhniki disaster#Media coverage

{{football box collapsible |date={{Start date|1982|10|20|df=y}} |time=19:00 MSD (UTC+04) |round=Second round |team1=FC Spartak Moscow {{flagicon|URS}} |score=2–0 [https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/67271--spartak-moskva-vs-haarlem/ Report] |team2={{flagicon|NLD}} HFC Haarlem |goals1={{plainlist| *Fyodor Cherenkov

• Rinat Dasayev
• Yuri Gavrilov
• {{goal|16}} Edgar Gess
• Boris Pozdnyakov
• Sergey Rodionov
• Oleg Romantsev
• Sergey Shavlo
• Vladimir Shcherbak
• {{goal|90}} Sergei Shvetsov
• Vladimir Sochnov}} |goals2= {{plainlist| *Wim Balm
• Joop Böckling
• Martin Haar
• Piet Keur {{suboff|85}}
• Gerrie Kleton
• Tommy Kristiansen {{subon|85}}
• Frank van Leen
• Alwin Leysner
• Keith Masefield
• Edward Metgod
• Luc Nijholt
• Chris Verkaik}} |stadium=Central Lenin Stadium |location=Moscow, USSR |attendance=16,500 |referee=Edvard Sostarić (Yugoslavia)}}

On 20 October 1982, the weather in Moscow was snowy and extraordinarily cold for the middle of October, {{convert|-10|C|F}}. There were 82,000 match tickets available, but because of the freezing weather conditions only about 16,500 tickets were sold.{{cite news |script-title=ru:Трагедия в Лужниках |first= Евгений |last=Дзичковский |url=http://www.sb.by/post/14733/ |newspaper=Sovetskaya Belorussiya – Belarus' Segodnya |location=Minsk |date=16 March 2002 |access-date=10 February 2012 |language=ru}}{{cite journal |script-title=ru:Долгое эхо черной среды |first=Сергей |last=Антошин |url=http://october20.ru/site/20-09-92_ms.html |journal=Московский Спартак |volume=1 |year=1992 |access-date=13 September 2015 |language=ru}}

The Grand Arena of Central Lenin Stadium (also called Olympic Stadium) did not have a roof over the seating at the time (it was installed in the 1997 improvements). In preparation for the match, the stadium management decided to open only two of the four stands for fans: the East Stand ("C") and the West Stand ("A"), to have enough time to clean snow from the stands before the game. Each stand had seating for 23,000 spectators. Most of the fans (about 12,000) went to the East Stand, which was closer to the Metro station.The proportion of the spectators between the two stands could be seen by comparing photos of the [https://beeldbank.spaarnestadphoto.com/search.pp?showpicture=86824 East Stand] and the [https://beeldbank.spaarnestadphoto.com/search.pp?showpicture=86825 West Stand]. Both photos were taken when the footballers were leaving the pitch after the game, i.e. approximately the time of the crush on Stairway 1 underneath the East Stand. There were approximately 100 Dutch supporters; the vast majority of fans in attendance were fans of Spartak Moscow.

The match started at 7:00 pm. In the 16th minute, Spartak took the lead through an Edgar Gess strike. The rest of the game was largely uneventful. Minutes before the end of the game, several hundred fans began to leave the stadium in an attempt to get to the Metro station ahead of the crowds.

There are two covered stairways in the stadium under each stand, leading down to the exits. All of the exits at both stands were open. However, most of the fans from the East Stand rushed to Stairway 1, closer to the Metro station.

According to the witnesses who were interviewed during the investigation, one of the fans fell at the lower steps of Stairway 1. According to some reports, it was a young woman, who had lost her shoe on the stairs and stopped, trying to retrieve it and put it back on. A couple of people also stopped, trying to help the fan in need, but the moving dense crowd on the stairs, limited by metal banisters, crushed them down. People began to stumble over the bodies of those who were crushed in a crowd collapse.

More and more mostly teenage fans were joining the crowd on the stairs, trying to push their way down and unaware of the tragedy unfolding below, which caused a pile-up of people. The crush coincided with the second goal for Spartak, which was scored by Sergei Shvetsov twenty seconds before the final whistle.

The injured were taken by ambulances to the NV Sklifosovsky Scientific Research Institute of First Aid in Moscow. The next day Yuri Andropov (who replaced Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the country, less than a month after this disaster) visited the institute and met several doctors and relatives of the injured.{{cite news |script-title=ru:Жизнь за «Спартак» |first=Александр |last=Просветов |url=http://www.sport-express.ru/newspaper/2007-10-23/16_1/ |newspaper=Sport Express |location=Moscow |date=23 October 2007 |page=16 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru}} The bodies of the dead were taken to the Moscow morgues for autopsy and identification. Later the bodies were returned to the victims' relatives for burial.

A total of 66 people died in this crush, 45 of whom were teenagers as young as 14, including five women. According to the post-mortem examinations, all of the fatalities died of compressive asphyxia.{{cite news |script-title=ru:Эхо трагедии |first=В. |last=Зайкин |url=http://october20.ru/site/31-08-89_izvestiya.html |newspaper=Izvestia |location=Moscow |issn=0233-4356 |date=31 August 1989 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru}} Another 61 people were injured, including 21 seriously. The Luzhniki Stadium tragedy was the Soviet Union's worst sporting disaster.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/may/04/championsleague|title=Moscow's Secret Tragedy: Hundreds of Fans Crushed to Death |access-date=26 February 2017|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 May 2008}}

A thorough investigation of the Luzhniki disaster corresponded with the new policies of Yuri Andropov, a former KGB head, who became the leader of the country a month after the tragedy. He became known in the Soviet Union for his efforts to restore discipline at all levels of the society that had been loosened by the last years of Brezhnev's rule.{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/15.htm|title=Russia: A Country Study|editor-last=Curtis|editor-first=Glenn E. |year=1996|publisher=U.S. Library of Congress|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=10 February 2012}} On 17 December 1982, two months after the crush, he even went as far as firing the interior minister Nikolai Shchelokov, the Soviet Union's top police officer, after learning of the corruption allegations against him.{{cite news|title=Top Aide to Brezhnev Got Costly Gifts, Court Told |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-06-mn-1790-story.html |agency=Associated Press|newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=6 September 1988|access-date=8 February 2012}}

The criminal investigation of this disaster was launched by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office. Detective Aleksandr Shpeyer was appointed in charge of it. 150 witnesses were interviewed during the investigation. It produced 10 volumes of evidence, and took about three months to complete.

On 26 November, one month after the disaster, the first criminal charges were made against Stadium Director Victor Kokryshev and Stadium Manager Yuri Panchikhin. They were detained and placed in Butyrka prison.

Four officials were eventually charged in relation to this disaster: Stadium Director Victor Kokryshev, Stadium Manager Yuri Panchikhin, Stadium Deputy Director K. Lyzhin and the chief of the police guards at the East Stand, S. Koryagin.

The trial of the first two was held on 8 February 1983, three and a half months after the tragedy. Both were found guilty of negligence and both were sentenced to three years of imprisonment, the maximum penalty for a crime in the Soviet Criminal code. However, Kokryshev (as a person previously decorated by the state) was eligible for a recent amnesty (on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the USSR) and was released. For Panchikhin, according to the same amnesty rules, the sentence was halved.

The other two officials, Deputy Director Lyzhin and police chief Major Koryagin, did not stand trial in February for medical reasons. Lyzhin, a World War II veteran, was admitted to the hospital after a heart attack. Koryagin was badly injured during his attempt to prevent more people from going into the crush. Later, both of them were given amnesty.

In 1992, on the 10th anniversary of the disaster, and three years after the information about it was revealed to the public, a monument was erected near the site of the tragedy. On 20 October 2007, on the 25th anniversary, a memorial match was played at Luzhniki between the former players of FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem.

The Luzhniki disaster is sometimes compared with the second Ibrox disaster.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.chelseafc.com/?p=238 |title=Blues fans Luzhniki tribute |date=19 October 2010 |publisher=Chelsea Football Club |location=London |access-date=12 February 2012}} Both of the crushes happened at the end of the match, when a fall on the stairs of one of the spectators caused a chain-reaction pile-up. There was also the same number of fatalities in both crushes – 66, many of whom were youths. Furthermore, both crushes coincided with a last-minute goal on the pitch.{{cite web|url=https://iainduff.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/the-ibrox-disaster-1971-scottish-footballs-darkest-hour/|title=The Ibrox Disaster, 1971: Scottish Football's Darkest Hour |publisher=wordpress.com |date=10 December 2010 |access-date=26 February 2017}}

The Luzhniki stadium has now been awarded the highest (4th) category status by UEFA. It hosted the 2008 UEFA Champions League final and the FIFA World Cup final in 2018.[http://www.stadiumguide.com/tournaments/fifa-world-cup-2018/ stadiumguide.com]

{{Gallery |title=Luzhniki stadium through the years|width=250 |height=170 |align=center |File:RIAN archive 487039 Opening ceremony of the 1980 Olympic Games.jpg|alt1=A crowded stadium during the opening ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics|1980: No cover, as in the October 1982 match. The East Stand is straight ahead.|File:Luzhniki.jpg|alt2=Football match with snow covering the stadium lanes and spectators wearing winter gear|2001: A UEFA Champions League match in cold weather |File:Luzhniki Inside View B Stand.jpg|alt3=Bright and colourful modern-looking stadium|2009: Luzhniki with covered stands|File:Luzhniki Stadium during 2013 IAAF World Championships 01.JPG|alt4=Bright and colourful modern-looking stadium|2013: Luzhniki with running tracks during the 2013 IAAF World Championships|File:2018 World Cup Final - France v Croatia - 1st Half.jpg|alt5=Bright and colourful modern-looking stadium|2018: Renovated Luzhniki with no running tracks during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final}}

The only information about the tragedy in the Soviet media immediately after the disaster was a short note in a local daily, Vechernyaya Moskva, the next day. It said: {{cquote|On 20 October 1982, after the football match at the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, as spectators were on their way out, an accident took place due to disturbances in the movement of people. There were casualties. An investigation into the circumstances of the accident is under way.The original text in Russian: "20 октября 1982 г. после футбольного матча на Большой спортивной арене Центрального стадиона имени В. И. Ленина при выходе зрителей в результате нарушения порядка движения людей произошел несчастный случай. Имеются пострадавшие. Проводится расследование обстоятельств происшедшего."{{cite news |script-title=ru:Трагическая дата |url=http://www.gazeta.ru/2003/10/20/tragi4eskaad.shtml |newspaper=Gazeta.ru |location=Moscow |date=20 October 2003 |access-date=2 February 2012 |language=ru}}}}

On 21 and 24 October 1982, two Soviet national sports {{nowrap|newspapers{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}}}the daily Sovetsky Sport{{cite news |script-title=ru:Холодная погода – горячая игра |first=О. |last=Кучеренко |url=http://october20.ru/site/21-10-82_ss.html |newspaper=Sovetsky Sport |location=Moscow |date=21 October 1982 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru}} and weekly Football-Hockey{{cite news |script-title=ru:Счёт на секунды |first=Константин |last=Есенин |url=http://october20.ru/site/24-10-82_fh.html |newspaper=Football-Hockey |location=Moscow |date=24 October 1982 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru}}{{hsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}published detailed accounts of this match, but neither mentioned the spectator tragedy that occurred.

The article in Vechernyaya Moskva did not go unnoticed by the West. It was reproduced by the Italian news agency ANSA. On 22 October, two days after the tragedy, La Stampa published a front-page article, where it revealed the information from the Soviet newspaper to its readers and speculated whether the word "casualties" should be understood as "injured" or "injured and killed".{{cite news |title=Morti e feriti a Mosca (quanti?) dopo la gara Spartak-Haarlem |url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it |agency=ANSA |newspaper=Stampa Sera |location=Turin |date=22 October 1982 |page=1 |access-date=15 February 2012 |language=it}} In this article La Stampa also said that the crush was probably caused by the fall of a woman, although La Stampa's source of that information is unclear, as this detail was not revealed by Vechernyaya Moskva.

On the next day, 23 October, Italian,{{cite news |title=Caos allo stadio Lenin: feriti, forse morti |url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it |newspaper=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=23 October 1982 |page=5 |access-date=15 February 2012 |language=it}} Spanish{{cite news |title=Varios muertos y heridos en el fútbol soviético, italiano y alemán |url=http://elpais.com/diario/1982/10/23/deportes/404175604_850215.html |newspaper=El País |location=Madrid |date=23 October 1982 |access-date=17 February 2012 |language=es}} and other Western newspapers stated that there were 3 people killed and 60 injured in this disaster, citing the Dutch journalists who were present at the match. They also mentioned, that, according to the Dutch journalists, both exits at the stand were open. According to El País, the information about 3 fatalities and 60 injured was distributed by the Dutch news agency ANP.

Three days later, on 26 October The New York Times wrote that "more than 20 persons were killed and dozens were injured in a panic at Lenin Stadium".{{cite news |title=20 Dead in Panic At Moscow Game |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/26/sports/20-dead-in-panic-at-moscow-game.html |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The New York Times |date=26 October 1982 |access-date=16 February 2012}} Ten days later, in the article published on 5 November 1982, La Stampa stated that "it seems that 72" people were killed and "at least 150" were injured in the Luzhiniki disaster, citing the unnamed "unofficial sources".{{cite news |title=Allo stadio Lenin di Mosca i morti furono oltre settanta |url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it |newspaper=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=5 November 1982 |page=4 |access-date=16 February 2012 |language=it}} By 1987, El País had lowered its number of estimated fatalities to 68.{{cite news |title=La violencia llegó a los estadios de la unión Soviética |url=http://elpais.com/diario/1987/09/23/deportes/559346409_850215.html |agency=EFE |newspaper=El País |location=Madrid |date=23 September 1987 |access-date=17 February 2012 |language=es}}

Until 1989, none of these figures were either confirmed or challenged by the Soviet officials. Soviet citizens were able to learn the details of this disaster only from the reports of the Voice of America and other Western shortwave-radio broadcasters.

The first publications in the Soviet Union about the number of fatalities of the Luzhniki tragedy appeared only after the introduction of the Glasnost policy by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the end of the 1980s.

On 18 April 1989, seven years after the Luzhniki tragedy, Sovetsky Sport published a list of the football disasters in history, and mentioned the Luzhniki disaster among them. The journalists noticed that no information about the number of fatalities in Luzhniki had ever been revealed in the Soviet media and suggested that there were about 100 fatalities, without providing any reference.

The information from this article was immediately reproduced by Italian,{{cite news |title=Quando a Mosca nel 1982 Morirono Cento Tifosi |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1989/04/19/quando-mosca-nel-1982-morirono-cento-tifosi.html |newspaper=la Repubblica |location=Rome |date=19 April 1989 |page=18 |access-date=14 February 2012 |language=it}} French,{{cite news |title=Une centaine de morts à Moscou lors d'un match en 1982 |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=643569 |newspaper=Le Monde |location=Paris |date=20 April 1989 |access-date=14 February 2012 |language=fr}} Spanish{{cite news |title=Un periódico soviético revela que hubo 100 muertos en un estadio de Moscú en 1982 |url=http://elpais.com/diario/1989/04/19/deportes/608940015_850215.html |agency=AFP |newspaper=El País |location=Madrid |date=19 April 1989 |access-date=15 February 2012 |language=es}} and other international media outlets.

Three months later, on 8 July 1989, Sovetsky Sport published another article, "Luzhniki's Dark Secret",{{cite news |script-title=ru:Черная тайна Лужников |first1=Сергей |last1=Микулик |first2=Сергей |last2=Топоров |url=http://www.october20.ru/site/08-07-89_ss.html |newspaper=Sovetsky Sport |location=Moscow |date=8 July 1989 |pages=1, 4 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru |trans-title=Luzhniki's Dark Secret}}{{cite news |title=Luzhniki's Dark Secret |first1=Sergei |last1=Mikulik |first2=Sergei |last2=Toporov |url=http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/13610556?enc=eng |newspaper=Sovetsky Sport |location=Moscow |date=8 July 1989 |pages=1, 4 |access-date=9 February 2012}} which received even more publicity in the West. A pair of journalists admitted in the article that they were not familiar with the archived evidence from the criminal investigation and therefore they did not know even the number of fatalities. So, they loosely estimated it at 340 fatalities, citing the unnamed "parents of the children who died", but admitting that it is "an unverified figure". The journalists went further, accusing the police officers at the stadium of provoking this disaster and making some other allegations.

Though full of numerous factual mistakes and fabricated details,{{cite news |title=Echi alla tragedia di Mosca |url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it |newspaper=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=12 July 1989 |page=18 |access-date=18 February 2012 |language=it}} this article immediately became a sensation in the Western media. Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, UPI, and other news agencies replicated the news about the "340 fatalities" of the "worst-ever sporting disaster in the history". By the end of next day, The New York Times,{{cite news |title=Report Says 340 Died At Soviet Match in '82 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/09/world/report-says-340-died-at-soviet-match-in-82.html |agency=Reuters |newspaper=The New York Times |date=9 July 1989 |access-date=10 February 2012}} Los Angeles Times,{{cite news |title='82 Moscow Soccer Tragedy Is Exposed |first=Andrew |last=Katell |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-10-sp-2558-story.html |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=10 July 1989 |access-date=16 February 2012}} The Washington Post,{{cite news |title=Soviets Reveal Up to 340 Fans Died in 1982 Soccer Disaster |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73886780.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+10%2C+1989&author=&desc=Soviets+Reveal+Up+to+340+Fans+Died+in+1982+Soccer+Disaster |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120730112922/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73886780.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+10,+1989&author=&desc=Soviets+Reveal+Up+to+340+Fans+Died+in+1982+Soccer+Disaster |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 July 2012 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=10 July 1989 |page=a.18 |access-date=16 February 2012}} La Stampa,{{cite news |title=I morti erano 340 |url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it |newspaper=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=9 July 1989 |page=18 |access-date=15 February 2012 |language=it}} la Repubblica,{{cite news |title=URSS, La Strage Nascosta |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1989/07/09/urss-la-strage-nascosta.html |newspaper=la Repubblica |location=Rome |date=9 July 1989 |page=34 |access-date=14 February 2012 |language=it}} Le Monde,{{cite news |title=Football: La plus grande tragédie de ce sport aurait fait 340 morts en URSS |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/web/imprimer_archive/1,13-0,37-652704,0.html |newspaper=Le Monde |location=Paris |date=11 July 1989 |access-date=17 February 2012 |language=fr}} die Tageszeitung,{{cite news |title=Massentod enthüllt |url=http://taz.de/digitaz/.archiv/suche?dos=1&demo=1&rev=1&mode=kompakt&tx=%22Massentod+enth%C3%BCllt%22&x=0&y=0 |newspaper=die Tageszeitung |location=Berlin |date=10 July 1989 |page=6 |access-date=18 February 2012 |language=de}} and other leading newspapers publicized this information all over the world.

Two weeks later, on 20 July 1989, the Soviet newspaper of record Izvestia published an interview with a Detective Aleksandr Shpeyer, who was in charge of the 1982 investigation of the Luzhniki disaster. In this article, named "The Tragedy at Luzhniki: Facts and Fabrication",{{cite news |script-title=ru:Трагедия в Лужниках. Факты и вымысел |first=В. |last=Зайкин |url=http://october20.ru/site/20-07-89_izvestiya.html |newspaper=Izvestia |location=Moscow |issn=0233-4356 |date=20 July 1989 |page=6 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru |trans-title=The Tragedy at Luzhniki: Facts and Fabrication |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915085934/http://october20.ru/site/20-07-89_izvestiya.html |archive-date=15 September 2018 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |title=The Tragedy at Luzhniki: Facts and Fabrication |first=V. |last=Zaikin |url=http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/13610569?enc=eng |newspaper=Izvestia |location=Moscow |date=20 July 1989 |page=6 |access-date=9 February 2012}} Detective Shpeyer provided various factual details of the disaster and revealed the real number of fatalities (66) and injured (61). When being asked, why this information was hidden from the public for so many years, Shpeyer replied that the Prosecutor's Office did not hide any information. The archives are open and any researcher could explore the evidence for themselves, after making an official, but simple request, the detective advised.

Unlike the "dark secret" article of Sovetsky Sport, the article in broadsheet Izvestia was hardly mentioned by the international media.{{cite news |title=Newswire |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-22-sp-3399-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=22 July 1989 |access-date=16 February 2012}}

The next day, Sovetsky Sport in its editorial admitted that its journalists, who wrote the sensational article two weeks earlier, had to use "conjectures" to provide details of this tragedy. At the same time, the editors expressed their satisfaction over the worldwide response evoked by their article.{{cite news |title=Матч памяти — каким ему быть |author=Editorial |url=http://october20.ru/site/21-07-89_ss.html |newspaper=Sovetsky Sport |location=Moscow |date=21 July 1989 |access-date=6 February 2012 |language=ru}}

In a special press conference in Moscow in August 1989, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office confirmed that there had been 66 fatalities in the Luzhniki disaster.

On 27 September 1989, Sovetsky Sport finally admitted that information provided by their journalists "could not be confirmed" and that "emotions had prevailed over the facts". The author of this article, Vladimir Geskin, stated that "there were no reasons to doubt the results of the investigation", reported by Izvestia on 20 July.

Despite its refutation in 1989, the figure of 340 fatalities or its variations ("more than 300", "closer to 350", "hundreds", etc.), is still often reproduced by some international media.{{cite news |title=Moscow's secret tragedy – hundreds of fans crushed to death |first=Jim |last=Riordan |author-link=James Riordan (writer-sportsman) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/may/04/championsleague |newspaper=Observer Sport |location=London |date=4 May 2008 |page=4 |access-date=7 February 2012}}{{cite news |title=Analysis: Fans, not constructors responsible for Egypt deaths |first=Mike |last=Collett |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-egypt-deaths-idUSTRE8102Q620120202 |work=Reuters |location=London |date=1 February 2012 |access-date=18 February 2012}} Other details from the "dark secret" article in Sovetsky Sport (e.g., that only one stand and one exit were opened for spectators, or that there was a head-on collision of two fans' crowds moving in the opposite directions after the second goal) also sometimes resurface in modern publications.{{cite news |title=After England, more tears fall on Moscow's plastic pitch |first=Jonathan |last=Wilson |author-link=Jonathan Wilson (journalist/author) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/oct/22/europeanfootball.sport1 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=22 October 2007 |access-date=7 February 2012}}

In 2007 NTV aired its "Fatal Goal" (Роковой гол) documentary in Russia about the Luzhniki disaster.{{cite web |url=http://4sale.ntv.ru/eng/item/3832/series/#9393 |title=Defeated Death. Episode 5. Fatal Goal |work=Catalogue: NTV Licence Sales Department |publisher=NTV Television Company |access-date=9 February 2012}} In 2008, ESPN Classic aired a Dutch documentary "Russian Night, the hidden football disaster" throughout Europe.

The only book about this disaster, Drama in het Lenin-stadion,{{cite book |last=Tol |first=Iwan |title=Drama in het Lenin-stadion |date=October 2007 |publisher=Nieuw Amsterdam |location=Amsterdam |language=nl |isbn=978-90-468-0286-1}} was published in Dutch in the Netherlands in 2007.

On 6 June 2018, in the run-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph published an article that suggested that the true scale of the disaster has been covered up by the Russian state and that the death toll was considerably higher than the official figure of 66. The article suggests that the tragedy was caused by police attempting to arrest Spartak fans who were singing "subversive" songs against the communist regime.{{cite news |last1=Wallace |first1=Sam |title=The dark, hidden horror of Russia's grand World Cup centrepiece |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/06/06/dark-hidden-horror-russias-grand-world-cup-centrepiece/ |access-date=7 June 2018 |work=Daily Telegraph |date=6 June 2018 |location=London |format=Subscription required}}

Source: “Мемориал памяти погибших” (Memorial to the victims) and “Офицальный список жертв матча ‘Спартак’—‘Хаарлем’” (Official list of victims of the Spartak—Haarlem match).

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{{Reflist}}

• [http://october20.ru/site/memo.html Luzhniki disaster fatalities list] with victims' photos and ages {{in lang|ru}}

{{Human crushes}}

{{FC Spartak Moscow}}

{{UEFA Europa League seasons}}

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