Indonesians, like me love their sports. It means that I have no shame whatsoever to admit that I've been a sport fan for the entirety of my life. We love our football teams, our athletes, our badminton athletes, and whenever our national team in any sport play a game, all Indonesians come together for their support. But just yesterday, we witness probably one if not the biggest sports tragedy ever witnessed in history. As I said earlier, we Indonesians are quite fanatic when it comes to football (or soccer). And sometimes, the fanatism of said football teams could turn deadly in an instant.
The site is Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java. It was an ordinary Liga 1 regular season between Arema FC VS Persebaya Surabaya. In hindsight, it would appear that these two clubs are only playing regular season football as part of the 2022/2023 season. But for the rest of us, it goes way more than that. These two clubs in fact, are somewhat of a bitter rival, fighting for football supremacy in the eastern part of the Java Island. The rivalry can be traced as far as the two competitions they were initially part of. Arema, formed in 1987, played in Liga Sepakbola Utama (Galatama), Persebaya on the other hand, are much older being first established in 1927, and was part of the amateur-oriented Perserikatan. As a result, Persebaya was pitted against Persema Malang in Perserikatan, and Arema had feuds with Mitra Surabaya in Galatama. When the two competitions merged, many supporters aligned themselves with either Persebaya or Arema. Since then, Persema's form dropped, and Mitra Surabaya was disbanded.
The main cause of this bitter rivalry, however, was not the antics of the players on the pitch, but by the supporter base of each side. There are 4 teams inside the Indonesian league system that have the most devoted fans. each 2 teams represent the west and east region of the Java Island. On the west side are Persija Jakarta and Persib Bandung. Two teams from two different provinces, one from the Jakarta SCR and the other represents the capital of West Java with equally hostile environment. Their fanbase, Jakmania (Persija) and Bobotoh (Persib) each have their own ways to intimidate each other, and whenever these two teams play each other, extra security measures are often enforced to reduce the chance of a riot between the fanbases. This is known as the Indonesian equivalent of the El Classico Derby. And there is the Super East Java Derby, guaranteeing hard matches and equally hostile fanbase. The relationship between Aremania (for Arema) and Bonek (for Persebaya) is so dangerous, each supporter base decided to form an agreement in 1988 to not visit each other whether the two teams play each other in any circumstances.
I have seen many instances of stadium riots throughout my lifetime, and each of them is heavily covered. But on this instance, it might be the most devastating. As mentioned earlier, Persebaya supporters were nowhere to be seen when the match kicked-off on Saturday, 1st of October at 08.30 PM Western Indonesia Time. The match itself was intense, with the visitors taking an early two-goal lead, before the hosts equalized towards the end of the first half. Then heartbreak for the hosts happened inside the second 45 minutes, as Persebaya pulled an extra goal, snapping their 23-year home match unbeaten streak. The game finishes 3-2 for the visitors, and the upset Aremania then flooded the pitch while others threw objects in disappointment, demanding explanation from the players and officials for their horrid performance. Riot then ensued when the police, employed by the match organizers threw tear gasses hoping to contain the chaos, but that would only triggered mass panics, as fans rushed towards the only exit gate available. With the combination of mass panic and unbottled anger, several stadium facilities were damaged, and two police vehicles were vandalized. There was also mass stampede as the spectators rushed for their lives. Children got separated from their parents, others trampled by those who had no concern other than their own well-being, and some of them even suffocate due to the tear gas. As the time of writing, they were approximately 448 casualties, including at least 130 deaths from the riot, two of them were police officers.
While I can safely rule out supporter-on-supporter violence, there are some problems that indirectly played their part during the riot. The first was the venue. Kanjuruhan Stadium used for Arema's home games has a 42.000-seat capacity, all of them were sold out. The organizers suggested before the game to only provide 38.000 spectator tickets for this game, with Persebaya fans banned from the premises. The police had also advised, per security concerns, to move the kick-off time ahead from its original timeslot, at 15.30 Western Indonesian Time (03.00 PM). But the match still went ahead on primetime slot due to agreements with the match broadcasters. The other problem being the use of tear gas to disperse crowds. FIFA strongly discourages the use of this contraption but has no say whatsoever for its usage by local match organizers.
The stampede is now recorded as the second-deadliest sports disaster behind the Lima football disaster in Peru which left 328 people dead and ahead of the Accra Sports Stadium disaster in Ghana which killed 126 people. Liga 1 competition is temporarily suspended by the Indonesian FA and President Joko Widodo, until proper evaluation to every security concern is carried out. Arema are also banned from organizing home matches for the rest of the season. It means that by the time the competition is reinstated, Arema FC games are to be played in neutral territory. I might be a proud sports fan, but there is no way that this is something to be proud of. This deadly fanatism within Indonesian football has taken too many lives but with too little mitigation from the Indonesian FA. I wish I could say "let this be the last incident", but with our history of hooliganism, I highly doubt that. For all lives lost during the riot, rest in peace. For those who are injured. I wish you all a speedy recovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment