English football had gone through a number of serious incidents related to football hooliganism throughout 1985. In March, a major riot had occurred during an FA Cup tie between Luton Town and Millwall; on the final day of the English domestic season, the Second Division game between Birmingham City and Leeds United was marred by the death of a 14-year-old Birmingham fan during rioting before the game, while just two days after Scotland's qualifying game in Iceland, the Heysel Stadium disaster had occurred prior to the 1985 European Cup Final, which had led to English clubs being banned from European competition by UEFA. Although this did not affect England in international football (though there were discussions in regards to their participation in the 1988 European Championships), nor did it have any implication for either the Scottish Football Association (SFA) or FAW over their clubs' participation in Europe, there were fears, voiced by Jock Stein among others, that any trouble by supporters at what would be a highly charged game in Cardiff, with not only what was riding on the result, but also that it was a Home International, would provide an excuse for the British government, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to extend the measures it was putting in place to crack down on hooliganism in England to Scotland and Wales. Indeed, as a result of Heysel, the Belgian government banned football teams from the whole of the United Kingdom on 1 June 1985, with the ban only lifted in December 1986.