But unlike that horrific case, the Copa America disaster was preventable. For a start, authorities should have established different security perimeters to identify troublemakers way before they approached the stadium, as is customary in these matches. There are reasons to believe this was a request by South America’s football governing body Conmebol that authorities for some reason ignored (they only forced fans to show their tickets if they were entering to the parking lots, prompting the bad guys simply to park their cars outside and walk freely to the gates).
The number of security officers mobilized was also inadequate: Just over 800 for a game attended by 65,000 people. By comparison, when I attended an Argentina-Uruguay World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires in November, I crossed two checkpoints before getting to the stadium’s entrance and the event was guarded by 1,100 officials plus support staff for a crowd of about 55,000 (and still some ticket holders were left out that night). Despite their self-praise, the Miami police didn’t seem very effective either: During the final, they arrested 27 people and ejected another 55. If we conservatively assume a thousand people entered illegally, that means 9 out of 10 were left uncaught — tempting odds for these crooks to try to repeat the feat.
In a way, Sunday’s events are a consequence of two very different cultures colliding: Conmebol’s transgressive, revenue-focused and always opaque decision-making style mixed with the arrogant, we-know-better attitude of the stadium and local authorities. That dysfunctional combination echoes the difficulties that Latin American policymakers and their US counterparts sometimes have in understanding one another. It guarantees there won’t be another Copa America in the US for the foreseeable future.
As the owner and day-to-day runner of the tournament, Conmebol certainly bears most of the responsibility. From the beginning, it tried to divert blame onto others and still hasn’t apologized to the fans who couldn’t use their tickets — nor shown any intention to compensate them. The arrest of Colombia football federation’s president and Conmebol official for allegedly assaulting stadium staff was the icing on the cake.
But American cities and stadiums are kidding themselves if they think they can prepare for football — excuse me, “soccer” — like any other big event, as Miami did. In fact, fan violence is sadly a trend happening around the globe, including the US. And Copa America witnessed other security failures, such as fistfights between Uruguayan players and Colombian fans at the stands during a semifinal. It’s true FIFA will oversee things in 2026. That means much tighter security, as we saw in the last two editions in Qatar and Russia. If there is a positive aspect to all this, it’s the chance that authorities now have to learn from mistakes and prepare for the biggest and most complex World Cup ever.
For my part, I still resent the Colombian dude next to me gloating about not having a ticket when he was trying to crash a gate. Having ingenuously paid almost $4,400 for my family’s four tickets, I could perhaps be forgiven for thinking how unfair the whole experience was. But worst of all was missing our long-held dream of witnessing Lionel Messi lifting another cup for Argentina. No refund will ever compensate for that.
Source link : https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/copa-america-final-chaos-in-miami-was-a-clash-of-civilizations-3112119
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Publish date : 2024-07-19 02:51:07
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