Monday, June 04, 2012
Another Weekend, Another Death
Following on from last weekend's tragedy at Bung Karno when three fans died following a brawl at the Persija v Persib, was anybody really expecting anyone out there to do anything about it?
Nope, didn't think there would be.
Another death at the weekend. Persebaya hosted Persija (the one with no fans) in Surabaya and in disturbances after the game a fan of the home team was killed in a stampede. The police said he died due to lack of oxygen!
What was particularly unpleasant following the Jakarta deaths was people n Twitter pointing the blame at the now rebel league. That this death happened at a game under the auspices of the official league should not be seen as a levelling of scores in the immature point scoring so beloved of the puerile.
The issue is crowd control and the lack thereof.
How many more needless deaths must football witness? many more I'm afraid. No one accepts there is a problem and anyway, the people dying aren't that rich are they? So no one gives a rubber duck.
The Surabaya police have responded by saying that no more games will be played in their city bringing to three the number of cities that have all but banned football from their stadiums. Tangerang, Jakarta and Surabaya.
There was a riot in Jayapura recently, with rumours of a death, but then no action was ever taken against Persipura and none is likely on crowd control in the future.
Perhaps it needs a local news organisation or fan group to start keeping a toll on how many fans die at football in this country in the same way CNN keeps count of dead soldiers at Uncle Sam's latest war.
Nope, didn't think there would be.
Another death at the weekend. Persebaya hosted Persija (the one with no fans) in Surabaya and in disturbances after the game a fan of the home team was killed in a stampede. The police said he died due to lack of oxygen!
What was particularly unpleasant following the Jakarta deaths was people n Twitter pointing the blame at the now rebel league. That this death happened at a game under the auspices of the official league should not be seen as a levelling of scores in the immature point scoring so beloved of the puerile.
The issue is crowd control and the lack thereof.
How many more needless deaths must football witness? many more I'm afraid. No one accepts there is a problem and anyway, the people dying aren't that rich are they? So no one gives a rubber duck.
The Surabaya police have responded by saying that no more games will be played in their city bringing to three the number of cities that have all but banned football from their stadiums. Tangerang, Jakarta and Surabaya.
There was a riot in Jayapura recently, with rumours of a death, but then no action was ever taken against Persipura and none is likely on crowd control in the future.
Perhaps it needs a local news organisation or fan group to start keeping a toll on how many fans die at football in this country in the same way CNN keeps count of dead soldiers at Uncle Sam's latest war.
# posted by Me @ 5:44 PM 
