THE suffocation of at least 125 fans in Kanjuruhan stadium, East Java, last Saturday was the latest horror at football matches across the world.
Those Liverpool supporters who escaped the frantic Stade de France crush can only be thankful that wretchedly inadequate policing extended only twice to the firing of teargas into the crowd at last season’s Champions League final.
It could have been worse. It appears, according to a French minister, that grenades or a form of handheld rubber bullet launchers were considered but would not have been “proportionate”.
In Malang, teargas was also the night’s tool and the fools in charge caused a massacre of the innocent.
This was no clash of rival supporters that got out of control. Far from it, away fans had been barred, ironically over worries that there would be clashes and only home club Arema followers were let in.
Sadly, shades of Hillsborough 1989. More than 4,000 over the 38,000 capacity squeezed into one area.
REAM MORE IN FOOTBALL
Even this might have been controlled but when fans overflowed on to the pitch, the police reacted with volleys of teargas, some of it into the stands.
You can only imagine the mayhem. People fell, blinded, coughing and vomiting as others ran through them, desperate to escape, dying in the attempt.
This was football’s biggest nightmare revisited.
It reminds us of the importance of good policing, careful planning, sensible procedures, sensitive handling and a thorough understanding that panic and excitability are the enemies of crowd control, among police and stewards as well as crowds.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
I refer to Paris because that was the arrogance of officialdom personified. It was where contempt among those paid to help make football attendance a generally pleasurable entertainment was running riot.
Police and clubs in England have learned from horrific incidents since Heysel in 1985 and beyond, that we must be scrupulous and vigilant in crowd control.
Most supporters are great. They want an entertaining match, watched in safety. But there is always the odd one that is out for trouble.
Football clubs have methods to catch the bringers of disgrace.
At the London Stadium we have 1,300 stewards, full policing inside and out, pin-sharp CCTV as well as an army of supporter liaison officers.
It wasn’t too long ago, in the 1980s particularly, that hooliganism was out of control in this country.
I remember hearing about the Zulus, a gang who purported to support Birmingham. At St Andrew’s in 1985 (that year again) when hellraisers clashed with an equally grim Leeds gang, the pitch was a battleground.
The Leeds mob dodged fencing to fight the Zulus, who pulled up advertising hoardings and charged like a cinematic battle.
After 30 minutes of open warfare, the police mounted horses and chased the mob back to the stands.
Such was the crush that a wall collapsed on a fan and killed him.
Thank God we have not seen a repeat of this for decades.
Indonesian football is still blighted by hooliganism, heavy-handed policing and crowd mismanagement.
The dreadful result is all those lives lost, including around 32 children.
Various inquiries in Indonesia have been called for and the police — 18 officers so far have been arrested — will take much of the blame.
There were, according to the Arema coach, fans “dying in the arms of players”. Utterly tragic.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
