It would be the worst tragedy of these features and it happened after the crash, when the fans burst into the field and confronted the police
The horror has become reality in Indonesia this morning. At least 129 people have been killed in a stadium in East Java during a football match. Violent riots broke out between hooligans during the match in which Arema FC faced Persebaya Surabaya in the city of Malang.
Outraged fans poured into the field en masse and the local police reacted to their behaviour. They launched tear gas and it sparked a stampede that sparked the tragedy, the largest on a football field. As a result, 129 people have died, most of them from crushing and suffocation, and it is possible that this number will increase in the coming hours.
According to the authorities, it was the Arema supporters who were the first to leave their seats due to their team’s 3-2 defeat. It was the first time in two decades that he lost to his rival. It is a high risk game because if we make an analogy with the Spanish league, it would be like Madrid – Barcelona.
His anger was of such magnitude that the officers couldn’t get them back to the stands and then a real battle broke out. You can see the violent behavior of the hooligans in the images of other fans. There are blows, races, throwing objects, smoke… In the midst of that tumult, two police officers also died.
The conduct of the Indonesian security forces is at stake as the rules of FIFA, the highest institution in world football, prohibit the use of crowd control gas to maintain law and order in stadiums. The Indonesian Football Association is investigating the incident and has announced that it will suspend the competition for at least a week.
Local authorities have also denied that more tickets were sold than allowed. According to Security Minister Mahfud MD, the venue has only 38,000 seats and no fewer than 42,000 tickets have been made available to fans. Likewise, he assures that the Persabaya fans were not allowed to attend the meeting. “The victims generally died from pushing, squeezing and stamping, and from lack of air,” he stressed.
His counterpart at Sport, Zainudin Amali, has promised that security protocols in the matches will be reviewed and even the possibility of banning access to the public being explored. “We are sorry for this incident. […] that harms our football at a time when fans can go to the stadiums to watch the matches,” he said.
In the stadium where the tragedy took place, this kind of event is not uncommon. According to local media, there have been several of a similar nature in recent decades. In the rest of the world, the worst happened in 2001 in Ghana, when 126 people died. Another took place in Guatemala in 1996, with 82 deaths. In Europe, the most horrific took place in the 1986 European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels: 39 people were killed and 500 injured.
Source: La Verdad
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