Desperate fans. Police crackdown. Tear gas. Fear. Death. It is impossible to understand that all of this happens in a 21st century football match. He spent less than a week ago in Indonesia. There have been at least 125 deaths. The horror images seemed distant. irrational. Another context. From another world. From another world?
The scenes, on a different scale, were repeated here in Argentina in the duel between Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Boca, THE MATCH on 23 of the Professional League. There was a dead man. It could be more. Many others. A miracle. Fainted people. Blinded by pepper spray. Smothered by the smokescreen. On and off the pitch. Desperate to escape. To breathe. To survive. Fans returned home with rubber bullet marks. Kids who got lost and were looking for their parents. Dads who got lost and were looking for their children. Soccer players moved by everything they have experienced. Concern for their families. For boys who entered the locker room without airless. Ache. And more pain. Inexplicable.
What happened? Who are the responsible? Whose fault is it? All questions that are destined to have immediate answers.
Was there an over-selling of tickets? The gymnastics management assures that it is not and promises to show documentation to prove it. They have to, of course. The organization has failed.
What about the violent action of the police? Why was it ordered to close the doors when there were hundreds of fans with tickets in hand? Was there a blind eye with colas? Why was it decided to throw tear gas at close range? Why were there point-blank rubber bullets at fans and press officers trying to record the chaos? Why was there the repression? Why was there another death on a football field?
The decision of the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, to fire the head of the operation suggests that things have gone very badly. How come? Is there something behind it? You have to investigate. It cannot be repeated. It was crazy.
The tragedy in Indonesia, in addition to the pain and misunderstanding, had put at the center of the discussion an old FIFA recommendation not to use tear gas or not to use armed agents at sporting events. Just look at what happened in La Plata to understand why. Everything is done wrong. There and here.
You can’t go back. Nobody will bring Cesar Gustavo Regueiro back to life. No one will erase the pain of his family and friends of him. Nobody will be able to restore the desire to go to court to all the people who have lived through this night of terror. What is clear is that it cannot be repeated.
It is incomprehensible that you go to a football match, a simple sports show – beyond the dark and already unsustainable business of the violent and their collusion with the political leadership – and go home, if you can go back, like the thousand gymnastics fans returned on Thursday evening.
It is not only in Indonesia. Turn the corner. It shouldn’t happen again.
Source: Clarin
