In
terms of global visibility there could hardly be a greater contrast
between Wednesday’s soccer disaster in Egypt which claimed the lives of
at least 73 people and the world’s worst recorded stadium disaster in
which 340 people died in Moscow in 1982.
Video footage of the riot in Port Said between fans
of the home side Al Masry and Egypt’s most successful team Al Ahly was
seen by millions around the world on the internet within minutes of it
unfolding.
But the disaster in Moscow was covered up for seven
years by the Soviet authorities who originally said 66 people died but
later admitted – in July 1989 – that 340 people had lost their lives on
October 20, 1982 when Spartak Moscow played Harlem of the Netherlands in
a UEFA Cup match at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Those fans died after Spartak scored a late goal and
fans leaving the stadium were crushed on an open stairway and in a
corridor when departing spectators surged back into the stadium only to
be met by fans leaving the ground.
That was also found to be the main cause of the Ibrox
Stadium disaster in Glasgow on January 2, 1971 when 66 people were
trampled to death at the end of a match between fierce Scottish rivals
Rangers and Celtic.
Departing fans turned back to the stadium after
hearing the roar of a late goal, causing dozens of people to tumble over
those climbing up the stairs and sending them all to their deaths.
Until the Moscow disaster of 1982 was revealed, the
world’s worst stadium disaster was recorded as taking place in Lima,
Peru in 1964 when 318 fans died and hundreds more were injured after a
goal was disallowed in an Olympic qualifier between Peru and Argentina.
Fans rioted, soldiers fired tear-gas, chaos reigned and hundreds died.
There have been other significant death tallies after
riots in Nepal’s national stadium in 1988 when over 100 died, in South
Africa in 1991 when 43 people were killed at a Kaizer Chiefs-Orlando
Pirates match and in February 1974 in Egypt when 49 fans were killed
trying to gain access to see Zamalek play Dulkla Prague of the former
Czechoslovakia.
Africa’s worst tragedy before Wednesday’s occurred in
May 2001 when around 126 people were killed in a stampede in the
Ghanaian capital of Accra.
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