Indonesian Football Association: Some gates were fatally squeezed

At least 131 people were killed after the doors of Indonesia’s football stadium were delayed to unlock after violence erupted after a match, the national football association said on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Football Federation said it had permanently banned the chief executive and security coordinator of Arema FC, the team hosting Saturday’s game, for failing to secure the venue and issuing an immediate order to unlock the gates.

“The door was supposed to be open, but it was closed,” said Owen Tobin, director of the association’s disciplinary committee.

With only a handful of people ordered to open the gates due to understaffing, before they reached some gates, spectators began scrambling to flee the tear gas fired by police in an attempt to control fans entering the stadium, said Ahmed Riyadh, the association spokesman.

He said all gates should be unlocked 10 minutes before the end of the game. But on Saturday, seven minutes after the referee blew the final whistle, several doors remained locked in one of the world’s deadliest sports disasters.

However, police continued to insist on Tuesday that the gate was wide open but too narrow to accommodate only two people as hundreds tried to flee.

For safety reasons, exits from stadiums must be unlocked at all times during matches, in accordance with FIFA and AFC recommendations. The rules do not necessarily apply to domestic or national leagues, but remain a safety standard, as is the recommendation against the use of tear gas as a crowd control measure.

Photos of the Malang Stadium show four connected door panels forming a gate. There are 14 doors in total.

Police said their investigation focused on surveillance camera footage from six of the 14 gates where most of the victims died.

“For those six doors, they didn’t close, but they were too small. They had capacity for two people, but hundreds of people came out. There was an obsession there,” police spokesman Dedi Placeyo told reporters. He added that the gates are the responsibility of the organizers.

Most of the deaths occurred when riot police fired tear gas and caused fans to run to the exits in panic and confusion. Police took action after some of the 42,000 Arema fans angrily ran onto the pitch after their team’s 3-2 defeat in what was the first home loss to visiting Persebaya Surabaya in 23 years.

On Monday, police announced they had replaced a police chief and nine elite officers, with 18 others under investigation for firing tear gas inside the stadium.

Some survivors said some exit gates were locked and they could not escape. Most of them specifically mentioned Gate 13.

“People tried to save themselves after tear gas was fired. My team was separated from each other,” said Prasetyo Pujiono, a 32-year-old farmer from Malang, who watched the game with friends near Gate 13.

“People can’t stay in stadiums anymore. We wanted to escape, but the gates were closed. That’s why most people died when they were trampled or suffocated,” he said. “I remember them screaming that they couldn’t breathe and their eyes were hurt.”

Those who tried to escape eventually broke through the wall next to Gate 13, leaving a large hole with scrawled graffiti that read: “Goodbye my brothers and sisters. January 10, 2022.”

Hundreds of Arema supporters and local residents have been paying tribute to those killed at Gates 13 and 12 since Monday. They prayed together, dropped rose petals and bouquets, and placed a few Arema scarves around the gate.

Evita Triawardani, a 26-year-old Arema supporter, said that in every match she plays, organizers typically open the gates 15 to 20 minutes before the game ends. But on Saturday night, she said Door 13 was closed. She saved herself by running out of the stadium through gate 14, which she said was open.

She said she saw people crying and gasping in tear gas and parents holding their children over their shoulders so they could breathe. At least 17 children were among the dead.

The Indonesian Football Federation announced that it had banned Arema from hosting any matches played by its supporters in Malang until next year due to Saturday’s disaster.

Mr Tobing said Arema’s chief executive Abdul Harris and security coordinator Suko Sutrisno had been banned from football for life for failing to secure the grounds and delaying the opening of the gates.