Police used tear gas to detain 10,000 fans, many with tickets, as they attempted to gain entry to an already packed stadium for the Gimnasia de La Plata vs. Boca Juniors game.
Last Saturday, a stampede at Indonesia’s Kanjuruhan Stadium, following a police gas intervention to reduce visiting fans who had forced their way into the field, ended in tragedy. 125 dead. This morning, far from having these recent events in mind, the match between Gimnasia de la Plata and Boca Junios, of the Argentine league, has ended in another confrontation between police and fans.
It was the ninth minute of the game when the players heard explosions and smoke from the gases entered the stands of the Gimnasia stadium. The referee decided to suspend the match and the protagonists went to the changing rooms. In the suburbs, a new battle between police and fans took place. According to the head of Argentina’s Agency for the Prevention of Violence in Sport, Eduardo Aparicio, “10,000 people tried to gain access to the stadium – which was already overcrowded – when the doors were closed.”
The officers tried to contain the crowd using tear gas, which then penetrated the field and hit the fans already in the stands, including the players themselves. Argentine authorities believe the possible oversale of tickets could be the cause of thousands of fans leaving the gates of an already overcrowded stadium. At the entrances, many showed their original ticket as the police tried to restrain the fans. Some events that reminded of what happened in the last Champions League final in Paris, where similar images were seen between Liverpool fans and French police.
The balance of the chaos experienced is devastating: a 57-year-old died as a result of cardiac arrest during the incidents and a hundred injured, as explained by the Security Minister of the Province of Buenos Aires, Sergio Berni. The headline has stated that the “responsibility for what happened” rests with the show’s organizing club. I mean gymnastics.
The images broadcast on local television and through social networks again stain Argentine football, which has had serious disagreements throughout its history. One of the measures adopted in the country a few years ago to end violence in football was to ban the relocation of visiting fans. According to data from the NGO Salvemos al Fútbol, Argentina has had more than 200 deaths as a result of violence in this sport since the 1990s.
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) strongly condemned “the widely known events that occurred today near the Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata stadium” and “promised to continue working to eradicate episodes of this kind that taint football party.
The match between Gymnastics and Boca was an important day in the Argentine league. With four days to go, the locals wanted to rejoin the battle for the championship and the visitors for the lead.
Source: La Verdad
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