Stadium Tragedies Could Stall Africa’s Bid for Cup

For a continent that insists it is ready to stage the World Cup and deserves to do so, Africa is making a formidable argument against being awarded soccer’s quadrennial world championship.

In the last month alone, stadium tragedies in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ivory Coast and Ghana have resulted in the deaths of more than 175 people.

These come on the heels of similarly tragic incidents during the last year in Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and elsewhere.

The deadly chain of events usually follows this pattern:

Fans try to break into an already overcrowded stadium or those inside begin to riot when the game goes against their team. Police fire tear gas into the crowd in an effort to gain control, causing a stampede in which men, women and children are trampled to death.

Soccer’s leaders and politicians of all stripes then bemoan the tragedy, promise corrective measures but do nothing. A few weeks later, the same tragedy occurs again.

Is this the scenario that awaits the sport in 2010 should FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, award the World Cup to Africa for the first time, as it has said it will do?

Only last month, while on a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said: “Africa will definitely host the 2010 World Cup.”

Increasingly, there is doubt about the wisdom of such a move, not to mention a certain relief that Germany, not South Africa, will be the 2006 host.

A quick look at the last six months shows why:

* On Nov. 6 in Kano, Nigeria, police fired tear gas to disperse knife-wielding hooligans who were stabbing fans. That started a stampede, which caused a grandstand to collapse and resulted in three deaths and an unknown number of injuries.

* On Dec. 10 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, dozens were injured in clashes between rival fans at Barbourfields Stadium, where police again used tear gas to break up the rioters, initiating a stampede among the sellout crowd of 40,000.

* On Jan. 13 in Lagos, Nigeria, police intervened to control fans scrambling for free T-shirts and baseball caps being given away by a sponsor two hours before Nigeria played Zambia. One fan was shot in the head and killed and in the ensuing riot, police again used tear gas.

* On April 11 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 43 people were crushed to death and 120 injured when fans broke down gates and surged into already sold-out Ellis Park stadium to see a game between the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

* On April 29 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, police moved to break up rioting at a match. At least eight people were killed and 51 seriously injured.

* On May 6 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, fighting among fans inside a stadium left one dead and 39 injured.

* On Wednesday in Accra, Ghana, 126 people died and scores were injured at a game between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko when Asante fans started throwing bottles and chairs onto the field and police fired tear gas at them. The crowd panicked and rushed to the stadium exits, only to find them locked.

The death toll made it Africa’s worst sporting disaster.

The blame, in most instances, must be equally shared by out-of-control fans, inadequate security arrangements at poorly equipped stadiums, overzealous police forces that resort to tear gas at the slightest provocation, and amateur administration at the highest levels of the sport.

Soccer is Africa’s most popular sport and stadiums routinely are oversold. South African newspapers reported, for example, that as many as 90,000 tickets had been sold for the game at Ellis Park, where the official capacity is 70,000.

Police also routinely overreact, and the indiscriminate use of tear gas invariably worsens every situation.

Reaction by various governments and by FIFA has been predictable.

South African President Thabo Mbeki launched a judicial inquiry into the Ellis Park tragedy, the country’s worst sporting disaster. FIFA pronounced itself “stunned and horrified” by the 43 deaths but would not speculate about their impact on South Africa’s chances of hosting the 2010 World Cup.

“We must have the decency to bury the dead first,” Blatter said.

He added that “[soccer] must do everything in its power that such disasters do not occur again.”

Within a month, an even worse incident had occurred in Ghana.

In the wake of Wednesday’s latest tragedy, Ghana’s president, John Kufuor, said six police officers in charge of stadium security had been suspended. A commission of inquiry has been established and play in the national premier soccer league has been suspended indefinitely.

“I would like to assure my fellow Ghanaians that anyone found guilty by the commission of any willful excess will face the full rigors of the law,” Kufuor said.

The world can be forgiven for believing that this might be a hollow promise.

Last July, police deliberately fired tear gas at stadium exits in Harare, Zimbabwe, during the World Cup qualifying game between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

A subsequent inquest blamed police for the 13 deaths that occurred, but the officers involved were neither suspended nor prosecuted.

Reacting to the Ghana tragedy, FIFA on Thursday warned Africa that its chance of staging the World Cup depended on improving stadium safety across the continent.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) bluntly told Ghanaian authorities they should “find the way and means to prevent such tragic accidents in the future by avoiding the firing of uncontrolled tear gas.”

If Africa is to be awarded the 2010 World Cup despite the succession of tragedies, then it might be well for FIFA’s executive committee, which will do the actual voting in 2004, to recall the words of Driss Benhima.

Benhima was chairman of Morocco’s unsuccessful 2006 World Cup bid committee and, in a comment aimed specifically at bid rivals England and Germany, he said:

“Countries that can’t control their fans should not apply to organize big sports events.”

The same might now be said about much of Africa.