Sport is more than life to some but this was taking it to the extreme. These days the rioting and the unruly behavior that characterized soccer in the 70s and 80s has largely been put under control save for a few incidents. The thing that bothers me is that when they finally do occur they tend to have a lot of casualties. In a game in Indonesia on Sunday, 120 plus soccer fans died in a stadium crash in the Indonesian city of Malang. This came after the home team FC Arema lost the game 2-3(wasn't like it was 6-3 or anything) prompting a pitch invasion. Yet this one hurts me even though I don't have an interest in Indonesian soccer. It also feels different from Hillsborough, Heysel or Port Said. Let me tell you why. Have you ever been home watch a game your team lost and felt like breaking your TV in half. Then your partner , wife whatever talked you down and told you it was a game and there is a next time, a chance to win the next game. Somehow I believe this applies here.
The police had a chance to cool out the crowd not react violently when unnecessary, arrest the vandals without labeling every fan in the stadium a vandal. Just identify the ring leaders, the trouble causers arrest them, poof you have put the flame out .That meant not firing tear guys AT ALL(Don't even think these guys were aware of the FIFA rule on tear gas anyway!). For me the police firing tear guys says we don't have enough man power to control the people here so let's try to cover for our shortcomings by taking the shortcut out of this. An example of exemplary crowd control from police was the Chile-Argentina infamous tennis Davis Cup riot in 2000 below. No playing cowboy cop , police protecting the players, the crowd and themselves until things calmed down
Another observation is that the rioting may not have anything to do with the result on the pitch at all. Just contrast the behavior of the Manchester United's fans at the Etihad the same day as this tragedy. Losing 4-0 half time, fans quietly left the stadium no fuss. The difference I think is that Indonesia has a poverty stricken population of about 55%(living below the poverty datum line) you bet your next salary a sizeable amount of that 55% are soccer fans. What better excuse to vent your life frustration and pulverize a soccer stadium than when your team loses badly. In other words life in the UK is now a whole lot sweeter than it was in the 70s and 80s for most fans and a whole lot better than in Indonesia. That doesn't excuse violence at all from fans. Accepting that sport is a win, lose or draw gig will help a long way in preventing disasters. Lastly, high risk fixtures should not have tickets sold above 3/4 capacity of the stadium as to not overwhelm the police and security personnel. The stadium capacity for this match in Indonesia was 38 000 yet 42 000 tickets were sold showing the level of corruption and greed by soccer officials in that country. Tickets SHOULD NOT BE SOLD at the game as a rule for high risk fixtures.
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