Movieversalfilm Exclusive · UK cinema and BBFC data · Monday 2 November 2026
Two films about two of the most painful moments for English football in the mid-1980s open in UK cinemas on the same Friday. The Film Distributors’ Association’s release schedule lists The Match, a documentary about England’s 1986 World Cup defeat by Diego Maradona’s Argentina, and Heysel 85, a drama about the Brussels stadium disaster, for Friday 20 November. The British Board of Film Classification passed The Match as a 12A last Friday, 30 October, so both are now rated, and the BBFC lists “images of real dead bodies” among the content warnings for each.
What We Found
- The date: The FDA’s UK and Ireland schedule, checked on 2 November, lists both films for Friday 20 November 2026
- The Match: Released by Disney. The BBFC classified it 12A on 30 October, with a running time of 91 minutes 12 seconds
- Heysel 85: Released by Icon Film Distribution and listed by the FDA for 25+ locations. The BBFC classified it 12A on 7 September, at 92 minutes 5 seconds
- The shared warning: The BBFC lists “images of real dead bodies” for both films
- UK availability: Both open in UK cinemas on Friday 20 November. No UK streaming date has been announced for either
Barely 13 months separate the two events. Heysel happened on 29 May 1985, and England met Argentina at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on 22 June 1986. We could find no coverage that has linked the two releases, which now arrive in British cinemas together.
The Match: the Hand of God, and what came before it
Directed by Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, and narrated by Gary Lineker and Jorge Valdano, The Match tells the story of the World Cup quarter-final that Argentina won 2–1. Maradona scored both of Argentina’s goals, the first with his hand, and Lineker scored England’s. Disney’s UK press office says the film uses rare archive footage and treats the Falklands War as a direct precursor to the game. It describes the match as the culmination of more than two hundred years of tension between the two countries.
The BBFC names John Barnes, Jorge Burruchaga, Ricardo Giusti, Gary Lineker and Julio Olarticoechea among the people on screen, and all five played in the match. The film is adapted from a book by Andrés Burgo and had its world premiere at Cannes on 13 May. Disney says it will be released “exclusively in cinemas”.
Heysel 85: a disaster told from the inside
Teodora Ana Mihai’s Heysel 85 is set at the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels. Before kick-off, Liverpool supporters charged at Juventus fans, a wall collapsed onto the mainly Italian crowd, and 39 people died. Icon’s synopsis says the story follows the mayor’s daughter and an Italian journalist as the death toll rises, caught between professional duty, family loyalty and moral responsibility. Violet Braeckman, Matteo Simoni and Josse De Pauw star.
It screened in the Thrill strand of this year’s BFI London Film Festival in October. Its BBFC warnings also cover moderate violence, injury detail and language.
Why the pairing matters to English football
The two stories are linked. Four days after Heysel, on 2 June 1985, UEFA banned English clubs from European competition. English clubs stayed out for five years, and Liverpool for six. So when Bobby Robson’s England went to Mexico, English club football was still shut out of Europe. One film looks back at one of English football’s darkest nights. The other revisits an England team on the biggest stage, losing to one of the most famous goals ever scored, and one of the most argued about.
Seeing both in the same week is a chance to look again at a period that still shapes how English football remembers itself, from both sides.
A crowded Friday
The two films won’t have the day to themselves. The FDA lists 14 titles for 20 November, led by Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Universal’s A Talent for Murder, with Helen Mirren, and A24’s You Can See Everything are each listed at 300+ locations. Our Weekly Cinema Pack will cover the full list nearer the date.
- Checked: FDA release schedule and BBFC records, 2 November 2026
- Dates can move: The FDA says future release dates are subject to change, so check your local cinema before you go
- What 12A means: Anyone under 12 must be with an adult
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
On 20 November, one cinema could be showing the Hand of God on one screen and Heysel on the next. Both films have the same 12A certificate and the same warning about real images of the dead. Together they cover 13 months that English football has never forgotten. Neither is likely to get the attention The Hunger Games will that weekend. But for anyone who remembers 1985 and 1986, or wants to understand them, that Friday is worth noting.
Will you see either film, or both? Tell us below.