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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.05.11 18:39l 52 Lines 2397 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 7556_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - May 9
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<F6CDD<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110509/1634Z 7556@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
May 9, 2001:
Soccer fans trampled in Ghana
On this day in 2001, during a soccer match at Accra Stadium in
Ghana, an encounter between police and rowdy fans results in a
stampede that kills 126 people. This tragedy was the worst-ever
sports-related disaster in Africa's history to that time.
The Accra Hearts of Oak, playing at home, were leading in their
match against archrival Asante Kotoko of Kumasi when Asante fans
began tearing up seats and throwing them on the field. Police on
the field responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. The crowd,
estimated at many thousands above the stated stadium capacity of
45,000, fled for the gates. However, the gates were locked and
people at the exits were crushed to death by the masses behind
them also trying to leave.
Witnesses at the scene reported that they pleaded with the police
to refrain from making the situation any worse by spraying more
gas. Ebenezer Nortey, an injured fan, later said It was all the
fault of the police. We started begging the police not to fire
any tear gas again. But they went ahead. Later, anger at the
police role in the tragedy led to relatives shouting anti-police
slogans outside a morgue where the dead were being identified.
In the months leading to the incident, there had been several
other disasters at soccer matches in Africa. On April 11, 43 fans
lost their lives in South Africa and on April 29, a stampede in
the Congo killed eight people. In fact, the previous 10 years of
soccer in Africa had seen one disaster after another. Most of
them were caused by the overcrowding of stadiums because of
rampant corruption among ticket takers, the locking of security
gates, under-training of security forces and the indiscriminate
use of tear gas. In Nigeria at the time of the Accra disaster,
tear gas was used on soccer crowds on a weekly basis.
In the 1980s, Europe had experienced similar problems, which
culminated on April 15, 1989, in the Hillsborough Stadium
disaster in which 95 people were killed and more than 200 injured
at an F.A. Cup semifinal match. Significant reforms were
instituted following that incident and large-scale disasters at
soccer matches were later largely confined to South America and
Africa, where reforms had not yet been implemented.
73, K.O. N0KFQ
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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