Sporting Stadiums Disasters
Over the years there have been too many examples of stadium disasters and crowd stampedes and riots resulting in the death of large numbers of sports fans. Here is an extensive list of such events.
A large crowd waiting to enter a baseball game 1911 Disasters Timeline
- 1902: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow. A wooden terrace collapsed during a match between Scotland and England leading to the death of 26 people. The incident led to the prohibition of wooden scaffold type terraces in favour of solid earth banking.
- 1946: March 9 - At an FA Cup Quarter-final second-leg tie clash between Stoke and Bolton Wanderers, the Burnden Park football stadium was over-crowded. When the crowd pressed forward on the embankment, two metal crush barriers broke leading to a crush that killed 33 fans and injured another 400.
- 1964: May 24 - More than 300 fans died and about 500 were injured in a riot at Estadio Nacional in Lima at an Olympic qualifying match between Peru and Argentina. It all started when the referee canceled a goal in the last minute, and a fan ran onto the pitch in protest. After the police aggressively beat him down, angered fans in the stands led to rioting. It is the worst recorded stadium disaster in history.
- 1967: September 17. There were 43 deaths and at least 300 injuries from crowd violence during a football match between the clubs of Kayserispor and Sivasspor at the Atatürk Stadium of Kayseri in Türkiye.
- 1971: Jan. 2 - 66 Rangers fans died and over 200 were injured at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, in a crush involving fans trying to leave the stadium and others trying to return when they heard that a late goal had been scored. It was reported that a fall on the stairs by one of the spectators caused a massive chain-reaction pile-up.
- 1974: Feb 17. About 50 fans were crushed to death before a football friendly match at the Zamalek Stadium in Cairo between Zamalek SC of Egypt and Dukla Prague of Czechoslovakia.
- 1981: Feb 8. A total number of 21 people died while rushing out of the stadium to celebrate the victory of Olympiacos against AEK Athens at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Athens, Greece.
- 1982: Oct 20: In the dying seconds of a UEFA Cup match at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow between FC Spartak and Dutch side Haarlem, in a situation reminiscent of the circumstances at Ibrox Stadium in 1971, a large number of people started rushing toward the exit to get to the metro before the rest of the crowd. A total of 66 people died in the crush.
- 1985: May 11 - 56 people burned to death and more than 200 were injured when a fire engulfed the main stand at Bradford stadium in England. The fire had been facilitated by the stand's wooden structure and accumulated debris and garbage underneath the stand. It is likely that a discarded match or cigarette started the fire.
- 1985: May 29 - 39 fans, most of them Italians, were crushed or trampled to death in rioting involving supporters of the Liverpool and Juventus teams before the 1985 European Cup final at Heysel stadium in Brussels. More than 400 people were injured. Although the match continued to get played, the incident led to a 5-year ban of English teams in Europe.
- 1988: March - 70 fans were trampled to death in a stampede at Nepal's national stadium in Kathmandu. Spectators rushed for cover during a violent hailstorm, but the stadium exits were locked.
- 1989: Hillsborough, Sheffield. 96 Liverpool fans died in a crush at the start of a semi-final FA Cup tie with Nottingham Forest. The crush was a result of poor crowd management and police control which led to too many fans entering the central pens instead of being divided over all pens.
- 1991: 13 Jan: There were 42 deaths in a stampede at South Africa's Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney. The football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Panicking fans trying to escape fighting between rival teams were trampled or crushed to death against riot-control fences.
- 1992: 18 people died and hundreds more were injured when the top of a temporary stand at Stade Furiani, Bastia, on the island of Corsica, collapsed before the start of a Coupe de France semi-final between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille.
- 1996: October 16. At least 83 people were killed and more than 140 injured in a stampede just prior to a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Guatemala and Costa Rica at Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores. An excessive number of fans attempted to enter the General Sur section, creating a human avalanche into the bottom of the stands, which is separated from the field by a fence.
- 2001: May 9. In a tragic incident that claimed the lives of 129 fans as a result of a stampede at the Accra Sports Stadium, Accra in Ghana, at a league match between Accra Hearts and Asante Kotoko. A controversial call resulting in fan unrest, followed by the firing of tear gas, was the cause of the tragedy.
- 2001: April 11. 43 people were crushed to death in a stampede of spectators pouring into the already overcrowded Ellis Park Stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, for the local Soweto derby association football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. These were the same two teams of the Oppenheimer Stadium disaster in 1991. An Orlando Pirates equalizer sparked a further surge by the fans trying to gain entry as they scrambled to see what had happened.
- 2009: March 29. Nineteen people were killed and 135 were injured in a stampede in the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, before a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Malawi and Côte d'Ivoire.
- 2012: Following the final whistle of a league match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly at Port Said Stadium, Port Said, hundreds of Al-Masry fans entered the pitch, attacked the Al-Ahly players, and next the Al-Ahly fans. In the subsequent chase and fights an estimated 79 Al-Ahly fans were killed.
- 2014: May 11. A stampede occurred in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the Stade Tata Raphaël, resulting in the death of 15 people and at least 24 other people injured. During the match between football clubs TP Mazembe and Vita Club, missiles were thrown on to the pitch and the referee chose to delay play. Police launched tear gas into the stands causing a stampede.
- 2015, Feb 8. 28 soccer fans died in a confrontation with the police at the gates of '30 June Stadium' during a league match between two Cairo clubs, Zamalek and ENPPI. Most of the dead were suffocated when the crowd stampeded after police used tear gas to clear the fans trying to force their way into the stadium.
- 2022: Oct 1. At least 125 football fans died and 320 were injured following a stampede towards an exit after police use tear gas in a stadium in Malang, East Java. Police officers fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse agitated supporters of the losing home side who had invaded the pitch after the final whistle.
Related Pages
- Ensuring safety at the stadium — Tips to reduce risks and enjoy the game
- Fallen Heroes — sporting heroes who have been taken from us before their time though war, accidents or acts of violence.
- Football Crowd Violence: A Persistent Issue
- Top-10 largest stadiums in the world
- Largest sporting crowds
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