Indonesian football faces pivotal moment after stadium disaster
MALANG, Indonesia, (AFP) – The deadly stampede at an Indonesian football stadium has shaken the foundations of the country’s most popular sport and was the culmination of decades of mismanagement and violence, experts say.
The tragedy a week ago that killed 131 people, including 32 children, in the aftermath of a top-tier match has forced officials and fans to confront failings in every aspect of the game in the country.
Experts on Indonesian football speak of shaky infrastructure, mismanagement, hours-long waits to leave outdated stadiums and the potential for heated passions to descend into violence that has killed scores since the 1990s.
“This is a wake-up call, one that has cost us greatly,” Indonesian football commentator Mohamad Kusnaeni told AFP.
President Joko Widodo visited the site of the tragedy on Wednesday, ordering an audit of all stadia and pointing to the country’s 78,000-seater national stadium in Jakarta as the standard he expects across the 18-team league.
The gates at the 42,000-capacity Kanjuruhan stadium in East Java’s Malang were big enough to fit only two people at a time and some were not open on time, officials said.
“You could see and sense that something bad could potentially happen,” Indonesian football pundit Pangeran Siahaan told AFP.
“There’s a lot of dangers every time you go into a football stadium in Indonesia.”
Many stadiums in Indonesia have not met international standards for hosting sports events, said Kusnaeni.
Some do not have single seating but instead benches that allow more people to stand and crowd together, while making it harder for security to spot a threatening incident before it happens.
Widodo said the seated Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta allowed all spectators to exit safely within 15 minutes, and all stadiums should be brought in line.
“We must learn from it. Minor punishments have made negligence in the football scene repeatedly happen,” said Akmal Marhali, coordinator of football watchdog Save Our Soccer and member of the fact-finding task force investigating the disaster.
“There must be progressive change and steps that turn the page.”
Stricter measures such as banning clubs from Indonesia’s football association, or PSSI, could help ensure better security and fan conduct.
