30 years since the very light tragedy: Sporting remember Rui Mendes' death | OneFootball

Thirty years have passed since one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Portuguese football, and Sporting did not let the date go unmarked. This Monday, the Lions marked the anniversary of the death of Rui Mendes, a green-and-white supporter who lost his life in the 1996 Portuguese Cup final after being struck by a flare gun projectile launched from the Benfica section at Jamor.

The Alvalade club used social media to remember Rui Mendes. The episode remains deeply etched in the memory of Sporting supporters and Portuguese football as a whole, and is often cited as one of the darkest moments ever experienced at a sports venue in Portugal.

The tragedy took place on May 18, 1996, during the Portuguese Cup final between Sporting and Benfica. The match had even started favorably for the Eagles, with Mauro Airez opening the scoring after just nine minutes, but the game would inevitably be overshadowed by dramatic events in the stands of the National Stadium.

It was then that Hugo Inácio, a Benfica supporter, fired a 'very light' toward the south stand at Jamor, fatally striking Rui Mendes, a 36-year-old Sporting fan. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the match continued as normal and Benfica would go on to win 3-1, with a brace from João Vieira Pinto and a goal from Carlos Xavier for the green and whites.

The man responsible for firing the very light was sentenced in 1998 to four years in prison. Hugo Inácio would later escape from prison in 2000, remaining on the run for more than a decade until he was captured again in 2011. Years later, in 2016, he was once again sentenced to prison and banned from entering sports venues due to possession of pyrotechnic material.

See Sporting's post: 

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.