East Java Killing Stadium

 　　The two international news at the beginning and end of October are really tragic:

　　On an ordinary Saturday night on October 1, a serious stampede occurred after a fierce ball game at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java, Indonesia The incident caused 135 deaths and about 580 injuries; on the evening of October 29, a stampede occurred at the Halloween celebration in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea, resulting in 156 deaths and 157 injuries, at least 30 of whom were seriously injured.

　　If the stampede in Itaewon is a bit of a "natural disaster": the narrow ramp, the excess crowd that has just lifted the epidemic restrictions, and the crowds caused by the delay in news, then the stampede on the flat court in Indonesia is more It is more inclined to "man-made disasters"-extremely angry fans, police who violated regulations, and mistakes in evacuation settings...

　　Looking back at the stadium riots in Indonesia that caused heavy casualties, we will find that even on a flat stadium, even if there are people with the same hobbies gathered People, even if there are more adequate security and plans than other public places, the fact that you walk into the stadium and watch an ordinary weekend night game does not mean that it is absolutely safe.

can't get out of the night

　　Before the start of the game on October 1, in addition to the usual speculation about the result of the game, the two teams in this game: Arema and Parsbaia at home have always been "deadly rivals".

　　In the past battle experience, the strength of the two sides is equal, the battle situation is stalemate, and the fans on both sides also believe in their own choices. Faced with different results, there have also been small-scale conflicts. Therefore, a total of more than 40,000 people entered the game to watch the game that night. In addition to "seat tickets", this game also sold "standing tickets", which shows how popular it is.

　　In the face of a large number of spectators and a contest between "dead rivals", the local area has also made many contingency plans for the game, including adding security guards, police officers, and even screening the audience: only fans of the home team Arema can enter the stadium watch the battle.

　　But everything seemed to have gone to the unharmonious side during the halftime break: the Arema team was in poor condition, and during the halftime break, some fans were fighting to vent their anger. When the final whistle was blown, the Arema team lost their first home game in 23 years, losing 2-3 to the Parsbaia team, which had no fans watching the game.

　　Anger, disappointment, or other emotions, let everything start to spin out of control. From the perspective of the local police station, after the game, fans flocked into the stadium, smashing objects, breaking glass, throwing objects at each other and wrestling together. Facing the police officers or security guards who tried to pull them away, the fans surrounded them, beat them together, overturned the police cars together, and took out arson tools to burn the facilities in the stadium...

On October 1, 2022, Malang, India, people carried an injured person out of the stadium

　　Before the stampede, two police officers maintaining order were killed by angry fans.

　　According to the feedback from the police station afterwards, before the stampede, two police officers maintaining order were beaten to death by angry fans. However, in the narration of the surviving fans, they said that the people who entered the stadium were "congratulating the team" and did not act too aggressively, at most throwing some objects. Baton drives away. So far, everything is just an ordinary incident in which some fans "gathered crowds to fight", and the fans and the police disagreed.

　　But as the police fired tear gas multiple times and in large numbers, all possible chances of easing the accident disappeared.

　　The Kanjuruhan Stadium, where the game will take place, is an indoor stadium. This means that tear gas bombs that are intended to quickly deter and instantly weaken the opponent's destructive power cannot dissipate as quickly as they would in an open-air environment to avoid harming innocent people after completing this instantaneous task.

　　After the police fired tear gas multiple times at the center of the stadium, stands No. 10, and No. 14, the entire stadium became a sea of ​​irritating gas and a large amount of smoke. The exits became difficult to find, the atmosphere became panic, people pushed and shoved around walls, narrow passages, players' locker rooms, and ended up near exits 12 and 14 because of the panic and limited vision, plus a few doors that should have The open gate was closed tightly for unknown reasons, and many people, including at least 32 innocent children, were blocked there and never got out of the night.

police error

　　The stampede at the Indonesian stadium ranks among the top three sporting disasters in football history. The doomsday scene and the tragic ending caused by the deadly tear gas made Indonesian society question the way the police dealt with it: would everything have been different if the tear gas hadn’t been released?

　　Near the Kanjuruhan Stadium, people chanted "murderers" at police and hung up banners reading "Kanjuruhan Massacre" calling for police to investigate officers suspected of throwing tear gas — used as a means of crowd control, as required by FIFA tools are expressly prohibited.

Malang, Indonesia, October 2, 2022. Fans of Arema Football Club gather outside the Kanjuruhan Stadium to express their condolences to the victims

　　When evacuating crowds and stopping violence in the stadium, the use of tear gas is clearly prohibited, which is the result of countless blood and tears learned by the international community. If you look at the stampede tragedies that have happened on flat and open courts in the past, most of them are panic caused by the abuse of tear gas.

　　In May 1964, in the Olympic football qualifiers in South America, the Peruvian team played at home against the Argentine team. It is the home court and the host, and the Peruvian fans in the stands account for a huge proportion. At the match point near the end of the game, a goal of the Peruvian team was disallowed, and the Peruvian team lost to the Argentina team. Dissatisfied with the ruling, Peruvian fans threw objects into the field and fought with Argentine fans.

　　At this time, the police continued to fire tear gas into the stands, which escalated the small-scale brawl into panic and riots in the audience. The severe stampede and crush spread rapidly, eventually killing 318 people and injuring more than 500. So far, this miserable "record" is still maintained, and it is the worst football disaster in the world since it was recorded.

　　A similar thing happened at the Accra Stadium in Ghana in May 2001. The local police seemed to have done enough preparation and homework before the game. For example, it correctly predicted the "rival" attributes of the two participating teams and the intense emotions of the fans, and deployed more police forces—tear gas grenades and plastic bullet equipment. When there was a commotion at the stadium, the police used tear gas and plastic bullets to attack and try to maintain order, which also caused a lot of panic, stampede, and eventually killed 127 people.

　　If there is no tear gas involved, even if there are a relatively large number of emotional fans, there will always be innocent fans, family members, children, and ordinary people who just watch football games as entertainment. When fan riots occur, they can quickly leave the venue and avoid a wider range casualties occurred. But the smoke of tear gas and the rising fear enveloped everyone in a crowded place of death. These lessons learned and FIFA's warnings still failed to make the Indonesian police vigilant.

　　As required by FIFA, the use of tear gas as a crowd control tool is banned.

"No football game worth sacrificing your life"

　　On October 6, many Indonesian ordinary people gathered at the Soekarno Stadium in the capital Jakarta together with the famous Indonesian host Najuwa Shihab. They uniformly wore black short-sleeved shirts with Indonesian words "All football games are not worth sacrificing your life", and jointly called for the end of stadium violence and vicious incidents.

　　Indonesia has suffered from "football hooligans" for a long time. Except for a few stampedes caused by police mishandling due to fights, almost everywhere there is a ball game, it is always followed by large and small accidents. According to statistics from the Indonesian government reported by the British "Guardian", at least 78 people died in football-related accidents in the 28 years before the tragedy. Fans watching the game have to worry about their safety, and even the players playing in the middle of the stadium have to make more plans—because they are worried that the result of the game will cause dissatisfaction among the fans, many away teams will choose to use armored vehicles to pick up their players and flee immediately after the game. The scene was once extremely magical .

　　In addition to the violence of fans, the corrupt culture and lack of management in Indonesian football have also been criticized. In 2012, there was also a case in Indonesia where a fan was attacked and killed by police tear gas, but the investigation went nowhere.

　　After this tragedy, the Indonesian Football League was suspended. The Indonesian President promised to FIFA that he would use this tragedy as a lesson to promote the "all-round transformation" of Indonesian football, and "grasp the attention" on stadium standards and safety management. "opportunity" to carry out reforms to ensure that next year's U20 World Cup will be held in Indonesia as scheduled.

　　The Kanjuruhan Stadium, which has been soaked in death, will also be demolished. Indonesia will build a new stadium in place that meets the requirements of FIFA.

People chanted "murderers" to police and hung up banners reading "Kanjuruhan massacre"

On May 10, 2001, 123 people were killed in a stampede at the Accra stadium in Ghana. The picture shows the clothes and shoes left at the scene

　　Rebuilding a stadium is of course easier than rebuilding people's hearts, culture, and systems. Indonesia and the world probably do not lack standard football stadiums, and more ordinary people just hope for peace.

　　On April 15, 1989, the football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest started at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. Due to a management error, when the whistle blew for the opening of the game, there were still many fans who failed to enter the stadium crowded in the underground passage. Anxious fans and narrow venues led to stampedes and crowding incidents. 96 fans were crushed to death in front of the barbed wire.

　　"This incident changed my whole life." Liverpool star Barnes said later. "Football doesn't seem that important anymore. It really doesn't represent everything. What is football when 96 fans die in the crowd, when parents lose their beloved children, and children lose the parents who raised them?

　　" Back, can the loss of 135 lives completely change Indonesian football?