Stade Armand-Cesari disaster

Stade Armand-Cesari disaster

Date	5 May 1992 (1992-05-05)
Location	Bastia, Corsica, France
Deaths	18
Non-fatal injuries	2,300

The Armand Césari Stadium disaster happened at Bastia on the French island of Corsica at the Stade Armand Cesari, on 5 May 1992. 18 people were killed when one of the terraces collapsed.

On that day, SC Bastia faced Olympique de Marseille for a semifinal match in the French Cup. Marseille was arguably the best team in France at the time, and the board of Bastia wanted to take advantage of it by adding a large-capacity stand, to increase the number of seats by 50%. Local authorities approved the project without restrictions.

Before the game, the stand collapsed, killing 18 and leaving over 2,300 injured. Since then, Armand-Césari slowly improved, leaving only one of the four stands from 1992. This "under construction" stadium surprised the players from S.L. Benfica in 1997, as they believed this was the training pitch. Some major improvements finally started end of 1996, for a final capacity of 18,000.