Season 00/01 - May

Soccer fans killed after grandstand collapse - 07/05/2001

Source: Irish Examiner

SEVERAL Iranian soccer fans were killed yesterday and hundreds more were injured when part of the roof of a stadium grandstand caved in during a game. Angry fans clashed with police trying to make their way into the Mottaqi Stadium, where the accident occurred, said Ali Ansarian, a player with Persepolis, Iran's most popular soccer team.

It was not immediately clear what had sparked the riots. Some 20,000 fans were in the stadium at the time of the collapse, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. It reported "hundreds" injured and "several" dead without giving exact numbers. He said fans had started fires on the field.

''We are trapped in the locker room,'' Mr Ansarian said. ''There is such a thick crowd outside that we can't force open the door to the locker room. Through a small window, I can see fighting outside between fans and the police.''

Mr Ansarian said he had seen at least 30 people dead. More than 20,000 fans were packed into the stadium in the city of Sari, 155 miles northeast of Tehran.

State-run Tehran television showed fans wielding metal poles locked in battle with anti-riot forces trying to control the crowds at the stadium, described as ''old and overcrowded''.

One wall of the stadium had been completely torn down. Iron fences separating the grandstand from the field had been rooted out. The field was packed with fans and police forces.

''The security forces are trying to direct the people out of the stadium,'' said Tehran television. The Islamic Republic News Agency said ''hundreds'' of fans had been injured and ''several'' killed.

A telephone operator at the Bu Ali Hospital in Sari said injured fans were packed into hallways and even a courtyard. Many of the injuries were ''critical''.

Officials and witnesses confirmed that several people had been killed.

Red Star Beograd - Partizan Beograd - Cup - 09/05/2001

Source: SerbiaInfo

Police and fans injured in violent Yugoslav cup final

Belgrade, May 9 (Reuters) - Six police officers and 11 fans were injured in fighting before and during the Yugoslav cup final between Belgrade rivals Red Star and Partizan, officials of Belgrade's Anlave clinic said.


"Six police officers sustained head and facial injuries from wooden clubs, iron rods and stones before and during the match and were taken to hospital for treatment," the clinc's manager Slobodan Ivanovic told reporters after the match.


"A total of 11 fans were also injured by bottles, wooden clubs and stones and four of them have been taken to hospital, he added.


Rival fans fought each other and had running battles with police shortly before the kickoff and some left the staduim before the final whistle after tear gas was thrown into the crowd on one of the terraces.

It was not immediately clear who threw it.

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Yugoslav Cup final violence leads to 28 arrests

Violent clashes before and during Wednesday's Yugoslav Cup final between bitter Belgrade rivals Red Star and Partizan led to 28 arrests, Serbian police said on Friday.

"Police took action and arrested 28 offenders in order to prevent further riots and has pressed charges against 24 of them," the Serbian Interior Ministry said in a written statement.

It added that two police and 14 private vehicles were damaged in the rampage that started on Wednesday morning with rival fans fighting running battles with each other and police. Six police officers and a dozen fans were injured in the fighting.

Accra Hearts of Oak - Asante Kotoko - 09/05/2001

One hundred and thirty people die in Ghana football disaster -

Source: Crowd Dynamics (12/05/2001)

One hundred and thirty people died in a stampede at a football match in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday, in Africa's worst sporting disaster. After the home team Accra Hearts of Oak scored two late goals to beat Asante Kotoko 2-1, witnesses say some of the Kotoko fans began destroying plastic seats at the Accra Sports Stadium and throwing them on to the running track surrounding the pitch. In response the police began firing tear gas into the crowd and some fans were said to have retaliated with bottles. Many fans said the police had caused the stampede at the 40,000 capacity stadium by firing large amounts of the gas. As the gas spread, panic ensued and the fans scrambled for the exits, which were locked shut, causing many to be suffocated and crushed to death. Police ignored appeals from football fans to cease firing the tear gas. Since the disaster happened so close to the end of the match, the ambulance men and Red Cross officials had already left. The dead bodies had to be sorted out by a squad of volunteers and taken to local hospitals in private cars as well as in ambulances. Some reports speak of hospital corridors crowded with dead and wounded, along with relatives frantically searching for loved ones. "I personally counted over 100 dead in one of the hospitals," said Komla Dumor, a presenter on a local radio station. Distraught relatives have been travelling to the scene of the disaster and to local hospitals to find their loved ones. Ghana's President John Kufuor has called an emergency cabinet meeting, and a national state of mourning is expected to be declared. Government spokeswoman Elisabeth Ohene said, “It looks like the police may have overreacted, but a committee of enquiry will be set up.” The Accra disaster was the fourth incident of its kind in Africa in less than a month. It follows a near-disaster at Accra's national stadium last December, when crowds panicked, fleeing fumes of tear gas fired during the African Champions League final. All that happened in the wake of that near-tragedy was a fine for Ghana's Football Association and a ban for the home club, Hearts of Oak. Nothing was done to improve safety at football matches.

In all, nearly 200 spectators have been killed at football matches in Africa over last 12 months.

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Source: AFP

130 die in football stampede

Accra, May 10
Africa suffered its worst football disaster ever, and its third in a month, when at least 130 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer match in Ghana.

Spectators said the crowd stampeded when police fired teargas after fans hurled missiles near the end of a game yesterday between Accra team Hearts of Oak and arch-rivals Asante Kotoko from the central town of Kumasi.

“Some died of suffocation but the majority seem to have been killed by being crushed,’’ said Brigadier Daniel Twum of the military hospital where most of the dead and injured were taken after the stampede.

President John Kufuor, clearly very shaken by the tragedy during a visit to the injured, told Reuters simply “This is really sad’’. One of his officials said Mr Kufuor screamed when he first heard the news.

Mr Kufuor summoned his cabinet for an emergency meeting later today and his aides said that a period of national mourning would be declared.

Brigadier Twum said 102 dead were brought to the military hospital and officials at two other hospitals confirmed a further 18 dead. He said another 50 people had been injured, but most were not in a serious condition.

“All the victims will have to be identified, and then we will do postmortems,’’ Brigadier Twum said.

The witnesses said with Hearts of Oak leading 2-1 after two quick goals near the end of the game, Asante Kotoko fans began tearing up plastic chairs and throwing chunks onto the pitch.

The police reacted by firing teargas into the packed stadium which has a capacity of 50,000.

“There was a mad rush out of the stadium,’’ spectator Mohamed Anwar told Reuters.

“There was smoke and there were debris, and I counted at least 15 people lying on the floor in one part of the stadium. Some were injured and apparently some were dead.

“People who fell were lying on the floor. You could see that they were clearly dead.’’

Wails of anguish echoed around the stadium as scores of bodies piled up from Africa’s third football disaster in a month and the worst in its history.

On April 11, 43 soccer fans were crushed to death when fans tried to force their way into Johannesburg’s huge Ellis Park stadium midway through a top South African league match.

At least seven people were killed and 51 seriously injured in an April 30 stampede in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the police moved to break up rioting at a match in Lubumbashi.

Bitter rivalry has long marked games between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, two of the biggest names in football on a soccer-mad continent.

Hearts of Oak’s following is from the coastal capital Accra. Kotoko draws its support from the old Ashanti kingdom where Mr Kufuor, at one time Kotoko’s club chairman, has his roots.

Fears of trouble at one of the first matches in the league this season had meant there was a heavy police presence at the Accra Sports’ Stadium.

Harry Zakour, Chief Executive of Hearts of Oak, criticised police for firing up to a dozen teargas canisters in the stadium.

“One would have been enough to scare the public,’’ he said. “It’s a very sad story. We will have to set up a committee to see what went wrong’’.

Africa, which hopes to host the 2010 World Cup despite concerns over stadium safety, has suffered repeated tragedy over the past decade as a result of soccer violence.

Thirteen people died last year in a stadium stampede in Zimbabwe after police fired teargas at a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Kaizer Chiefs - Orlando Pirates - 11/04/2001

Source: Crowd Dynamics

43 football fans died and 250 were injured at the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg during a local league derby between rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. People were crushed to death when crowds continued to pour into the stadium, which was already packed to capacity. A total of 14 people died and 51 were injured on April 29 during a match at Lubumbashi, in the south east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, when violence broke out in the league game between TP Mazembe and Lupopo. Again police had fired off tear gas, causing spectators to rush onto the pitch. Both gates of the stadium, which contained at least 30,000 people, were barred shut, causing delays in evacuation. A witness said that a metal barrier separating the main part of the stadium from an annexe collapsed under the pressure of people trying to get out. On May 6, in the Ivory Coast, incidents between supporters and police led to one death and 39 injuries at the Houphouet-Boigny stadium in Abidjan. Supporters of the top two clubs in the Ivory Coast, Asec Mimosa and Africa Sports, both based in the main commercial capital, Abidjan, clashed violently during a local league derby. In July last year, 13 people were killed in a stampede when police deliberately fired tear gas into the near-capacity 60,000 crowd in Harare stadium during the World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Zimbabwean and South African players had to lay face down on the pitch and were treated by medical personnel, while a cloud of teargas hung over one stand in the bowl-shaped stadium. Officials at the ground were outraged by the police action, claiming their response was a "total over-reaction". An inquest into the tragedy found the police action to blame for the 13 deaths, but there have been no prosecutions of suspended police officers. On top of these incidents, there have also been serious riots at football stadiums in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa in the last year, where deaths have only been narrowly averted. Much of the African media say such disasters result from the rapid increase in football's popularity in Africa, which has grown much faster than the development of modern facilities. It is certainly true that most of the stadiums in Africa lack proper facilities and staff. But it is also common practice for police to indiscriminately fire tear gas to quell rioting supporters, under conditions where stewarding and safety measures are almost non-existent and exits from the grounds are often blocked. Such oppressive methods reflect the policing approach to working people taken by most African regimes. Moreover, the provision of sports facilities are hardly a priority in countries that are amongst the most heavily indebted in the world and where IMF structural adjustment programmes dictate minimal social spending. The role of the football clubs has also been a factor in most of the disasters. Top league matches attract record numbers of fans but even so, tickets are usually sold on the day of the game. This encourages over-selling and in some cases, sales of fake tickets, which leads to the problem of over-capacity. In a climate where profiteering is encouraged, improving the safety and suitability of grounds takes a low priority.

Aston Villa - Coventry City - 05/05/2001

Source : Press + NCIS

Prior to the game, Villa supporters entered a public house known to be frequented by Birmingham City supporters. Police dispersed the group which then entered another public house. Here they turned on police officers throwing glasses and bar stools. Extra police then attended and the group moved onto a further public house. They were then escorted to the station and put on a Villa bound train. However, before the train left a fight ensued between Aston Villa and Coventry supporters. Order was restored by police officer and arrests were made. At half time Villa supporters lifted the segregating roller shutter in the Doug Ellis Stand and brief disorder took place before stewards and police separated rival fans. Towards the end of the game, some Coventry supporters came outside the stadium and looked to confront Villa supporters, but there were none so they turned on police. This group was then dispersed by police and went back into ground. Following the game, disorder took place on route to the railway station. This was dealt with effectively and disorder was quite minor, although bricks and bottles were thrown. Coventry supporters were then escorted on to special train.

Disorder Blackpool involving West Midlands Clubs - 05/05/2001

Source: NCIS

On Saturday 5th May 2001, from approximately 3.30 pm until 3 am the following day, large-scale disorder took place at Blackpool. Approximately 300 people from Wolves and West Bromwich clashed near a public house. Birmingham City also became involved later in the day. At least one person was stabbed, possibly up to three, and there were numerous injuries to others who refused to go to hospital.

Wycombe Wanderers - Colchester United - 05/05/2001

Source: NCIS

Near the end of the game the Colchester supporters attempted to leave the ground early but were prevented from doing so by police. Officers then came under attack from coins and plastic bottles. Whilst attempting to keep Colchester supporters in the ground after the game a wooden gate was forced open from within the stadium and a small number of police officers were knocked over. Colchester supporters were then escorted to the rail station in buses and placed on trains.

Shrewsbury Town - Brighton and Hove Albion - 05/05/2001

Source: NCIS

Prior to the game, a group of around 25 Brighton supporters were sighted outside a public house frequented by Shrewsbury supporters. There was then an exchange of missiles which was quickly dealt with by police. Close to kick off, a small group of Brighton supporters was attacked close to the stadium by a larger group of locals. Disorder ensued and two arrests, one from each side were made. A four-year-old girl was knocked over during this and she received facial injuries.
At the end of the game the match there was a small pitch invasion. After the match there were several outbreaks of fighting in the town centre on the way back to the railway station. Police used batons in an attempt to separate the groups. A shop was damaged and missiles were exchanged throughout. Brighton supporters were escorted to Birmingham by BTP and then onwards to Brighton. There were six arrests, five from Shrewsbury and one from Brighton.

Euston Road London - 05/05/2001

Source: NCIS

Over 50 Everton fans travelled to London by coach and were dropped off at Euston station. Post match disorder occurred in St Pancras/Euston area. 40 Chelsea hooligans then attended St Pancras and attacked a group of returning Tottenham fans. One fan was beaten unconscious and three Chelsea subjects were arrested.

Merthyr Tydfil v Swansea City - Cup - 08/05/2001

Source: NCIS

Fifteen minutes after the start of the game, a group of around 12 Swansea supporters left the ground and went to a lounge bar nearby. An hour later 35-40 Cardiff supporters made their way to the same bar and began to confront the Swansea supporters. Police officers forced the Cardiff supporters away, batons were drawn and one Cardiff fan was arrested after a struggle with police officers. The Swansea group then attempted to leave the bar, but was forced to remain by police. The Cardiff group was then escorted out of the area and into the town centre. Subsequently, the group of Swansea supporters were taken to the station and placed on trains, with no further incidents occurring.

Celtic Glasgow - Manchester United -16/05/2001 - Testimonial

Source: NCIS

Two men were arrested at Edinburgh Waverley station in possession of a large quantity [£700] of forged banknotes. Large amounts of forged bank notes were tendered in Glasgow during the previous day.

Manchester City - Chelsea FC - 19/05/2001

Source: NCIS

At the final whistle home fans invaded the pitch and there was an exchange of insults between them and the visitors, which worsened. Police struggled to keep them apart and some disorder took place as rival fans fought across the segregation area in the North Stand. There was some damage caused and seats were broken and used as missiles. Police eventually restored order and the Chelsea fans were taken to the train station under escort. Large groups of City fans loitered in side streets adjacent to the ground and confronted the police. But they were eventually dispersed and order restored.

Djurgarden IF - AIK Stockholm - 15/05/2001

Source: DFG website

Hajduk Split - Dinamo Zagreb - Coupe - 09/05/2001

Source : mail

Glasgow Rangers - Aberdeen - 05/05/2001

Source : YouTube

Yugoslavia/Serbia - FC Vojvodina - FC Zemun - First league - 04/05/2001

Source: firma1989.com