MALANG, Indonesia –
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday that locked gates contributed to the crowds at the football stadium that left 131 dead and more than 400 injured as police fired tear gas and ran to the exits in panic.
Widodo made the statement after touring the Kanjuruhan Football Stadium in the city of Malang in East Java to see first-hand the scene of one of the world’s deadliest sporting event disasters. He also visited the victims who were recovering at Saiful Anwar General Hospital and promised a thorough investigation into what had transpired on Saturday night.
Police continued to insist the gates were open but too narrow and could only hold two people at a time as hundreds tried to escape.
Indonesia’s national football association said due to a shortage of workers, few people were ordered to open the gates and they had not yet reached some doors when spectators began to escape tear gas fired by police to smother the crowd control fans had entered the field.
Police acted after some of Arema FC’s 42,000 fans ran angrily onto the field after their side were defeated 3-2, their first home defeat to Persebaya Surabaya in 23 years.
“To illustrate, the problem I saw was that there were locked doors, steep stairs and panic,” Widodo said in a news conference. “But all of this will be finalized later by an investigative team.”
Widodo said he spoke to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Monday to update him on the investigation. They also discussed Indonesia’s preparations to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023.
Widodo said Infantino assured him that “FIFA is ready to help us improve our football management”.
“I think we really need an overall assessment of our overall football management from games, stadiums, spectators, time and safety,” he said. “So that this stadium disaster never happens again.”
According to the recommendations of FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, the exits in the stadiums must always be unlocked during a match for security reasons. These rules don’t necessarily apply to national or national leagues, but they are a safety standard nonetheless, as is the recommendation against the use of tear gas as a crowd control measure.
Deaths at the stadium included 17 children, while 440 people were injured. At least 61 remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, 29 of them in critical condition.
Widodo ordered the injured to receive the best medical treatment and said the government will pay their bills. He also said the government will provide 50 million rupiah (US$3,300) to each family who has lost loved ones.
Several institutions and the provincial government of East Java will pay victims’ families additional compensation ranging from 10 to 15 million rupiah ($650 to $1,000).
The Football Federation of Indonesia has banned Arema from hosting matches in Malang attended by its fans until next year. The club’s chief executive, Abdul Harris, and security coordinator, Suko Sutrisno, were banned for life from playing football for failing to secure the field and delaying the opening of the gates.
An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts Monday and 18 others were investigated for responsibility for the tear gas firing.