25 years ago today, the policeman was beaten half to death: hooligan victim Nivel can’t even talk anymore

Nivel should serve as a replacement

The Germans are looking for Yugoslavs to fight with. Only: you won’t find any. The police have strictly separated the two fan camps. So the movies become the new enemy.

Three police officers stand in a side street of Bollaertstraat, near the train station. Her job: to guard the parked police cars. The hools make them up. It’s half a dozen. A witness recalls hearing someone shout, “Now let’s go after the three cops, it’s only three, we’ll make it porridge.” Two escape because they don’t have time to load their guns with gas grenades. Meanwhile, the whores take Nivel.

…until the skull breaks

One pulls him to the ground. The Frenchman loses his helmet. Others attack the father of two children. With billboards and with the gas grenade attachment. The skull of the movies breaks. The whores flee, leaving Nivel in his blood. half dead. Another witness speaks of a minute, a single minute of “blood lust”. Judge Rudolf Esders, who will sentence the perpetrators more than a year later, speaks of pure lust for violence, of people who have become monsters. “Their behavior came as a shock to any civilized person.”

Croatia coach Blazevic honors Nivel

The Croatian national coach Miroslav Blazevic (1935-2023), who was also the national coach of Switzerland for a short time, honors the victim by coaching his team every game with a police cap on his head. There were many games. Croatia played in third place.

Nivel remains in a coma for six weeks. When he wakes up, he is handicapped. Paralyzed on one side. Blind in one eye. He cannot smell or taste and only hears badly. In the beginning he can still talk a little. Now that doesn’t work either. He can only communicate with gestures and looks. Reading and writing is also no longer possible. “Our lives are determined by the consequences of this day,” says his wife Lorette. “They took his freedom from him. There was a lot of suffering and sadness. The bitterness is immeasurable,” she says to “Sportbild”.

Ten years in prison for the main perpetrator

The main perpetrator was sentenced to ten years in prison for attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm. The three accomplices get six to three and a half years. They’ve all been out of prison a long time ago. “You got your life back. Not my husband,” says Lorette.

In Germany, June 21 is considered the blackest day in the history of the DFB. Chancellor Helmut Kohl called the incidents “a disgrace to our country”. To this day, the association takes care of Nivel. In 2000, the Daniel Nivel Foundation was established with the cooperation of the DFB and FIFA, campaigning against football violence and for Franco-German friendship. In 2018, the Frenchman received the Federal Cross of Merit.