This coming week marks the 25th anniversary of the Swans trip to Greece in the European Cup Winners Cup in 1989 - a tie that saw Swans fans arrested and jailed for 16 months in Greece and a pulsating two legged tie against one of the bigger names in European Football.
The Swans were in Europe that season courtesy of our Welsh cup win the previous May where we had hammered Kidderminster 5-0 at the Vetch having beaten Barry Town over two legs in the semi finals of the competition. It was a result that gave us our first Welsh Cup win since our days in the First Division and therefore our first European campaign since that point in time
As you would expect the game attracted plenty of interest from the Swans support with many heading over to Athens to watch the first leg which saw the Swans 3-0 down within the hour before battling back to lose 3-2 and missing a glorious chance to equalise in the closing stages of the game. The tie was poised for a classic Vetch encounter but it was the off the pitch incidents that got most of the headlines after the event and led to some of that travelling support jailed in Greece after the game.
There were reports of damage to bars, parked cars and Swansea fans were blamed squarely for what happened at a time when English clubs were banned from Europe following the Heysel riots in 1985. Welsh clubs were still allowed into the competitions though but it was always a case of the British all being tarred with the same brush at the time and not surprisingly the events in Athens made national TV coverage back home with bail set as high as £800 back in those times to release the fans back to Wales.
There were disturbing pictures on the news of fans covering their heads with their clothes that were soaked in their own blood and the claims were that they were attacked unprovoked by the Greek fans having spent an enjoyable time watching their club put in a fantastic overseas performance.
The videos at the bottom of this page show the goals from the two games as well as the news reports of the time and we know that there will be many reading this who would have been present in Greece at that point in time. Those that were jailed missed the second leg of the tie as they were still in Greece but the bail was eventually paid and they were allowed to return to Swansea to end the ordeal which they had suffered.
In terms of on the pitch, the Swans looked like they were about to spring an upset in the second leg when they went into a 2-0 and 3-1 lead at the Vetch, both of which would have been enough to see them through but with the game heading into extra time at 3-2, a late goal from the visitors was enough to give them the win 6-5 on aggregate and end the Swans campaign at the first hurdle.