There have been fatal stadium catastrophes during soccer matches throughout the world. These disasters were occasionally started by crowd violence and were sometimes made worse by incompetent police actions, which resulted in fans being crushed as they tried to exit the stadium.
These tragic occurrences have resulted in significant reforms, such as the elimination of fenced-in terraces in favor of seating-only stadiums, where thousands of spectators were previously allowed to stand. However, there were still tragic tramplings in Indonesia on Saturday, with over 125 people losing their lives.
The following are some of the most catastrophic events in history.
Peru – 1964
A referee’s decision to disallow Peru’s equalizing goal in the dying minutes of an Olympic qualification play against Argentina sparked a riot in Lima, Peru, which resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people and injuries to more than 500 more.
The contest was between Peru and Argentina. In the incident that occurred on May 24, 1964, some supporters broke into the field of the Estadio Nacional, while others threw objects at the police. In response, the police used tear gas grenades, which drove the panicked masses into escape passages that were sealed.
The majority of individuals who were slain in the tunnels were crushed to death by foot traffic, however, it is unknown how many were killed by shots fired by the police.
Russia – 1982
On October 20, 1982, a tragic crash occurred during a match between a Moscow team and a visiting Dutch side. For a long time, the incident remained shrouded in obscurity. Only a small number of injuries were recorded in the official records; nevertheless, it was discovered in 1989 that at least 66 people had been murdered, and one Soviet publication said that the number of fatalities might have been as high as 340.
It was initially believed that football hooligans were to blame for the incident, but Soviet news media later reported that police had forced fans out of the Luzhniki Stadium through a single corridor, where they were crushed as others tried to rush back into the stadium after hearing news of a late goal from the Soviet side.
England in the year 1989
The local authorities and some news outlets had long blamed drunk and disorderly Liverpool supporters for the deaths of 97 soccer fans that occurred at an F.A. Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989, in Sheffield. The match was held at Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium.
In 2016, a British inquiry concluded that the people who were murdered at the Hillsborough Stadium had been the victims of blunders made by the police, which led to the conclusion that this theory should be disregarded. The survivors had been looking for vindication for decades, and they finally got it. The calamity served as the impetus for safety measures, one of which was the elimination of standing spaces and fencing surrounding soccer grounds.
Ghana – 2001
On May 9, 2001, as fans of Kumasi Asante Kotoko began to hurl things onto the pitch as their team fell behind their primary opponent, Hearts of Oak, the police shot tear gas into the bleachers, which sparked off a chaotic rush for the exits that resulted in the deaths of 126 people.
In an interview with the BBC, Joe Aggrey, the deputy sports minister of Ghana, stated that he felt the deployment of tear gas caused the catastrophe. He added that he witnessed groups of young men who had died that were too numerous for him to count. “I’m devastated,” he remarked.
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