The rise of football hooliganism, which had started to come to prominence in the 1970s, continued to mar the game into the 1980s and reached a nadir in the Heysel Stadium disaster, when Liverpool fans hooliganism, combined with poor policing and infrastructure, led to the deaths of 39 Juventus fans before the European Cup final, in May 1985. This resulted in English clubs being banned from European competitions for five years. Welsh clubs playing in the English league system, who could qualify for the European Cup Winners' Cup via the Welsh Cup, were unaffected by the ban, as were clubs from Scotland and Northern Ireland.