◤Argentine Primera División◢ One fan killed in Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Club Atlético Boca Juniors' suspended league clash after police fired tear gas..

ESPN reported the bad news on Friday morning Asian time, that a fan was suffocated to death indirectly due to the police firing tear gas during a "Maradona Derby" league game between Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in Argentine Primera División at home against Boca Juniors on Thursday night on October 6, 2022 local time.

According to reports, there was already a problem of overcrowding during the game that night. Many fans chose to climb over the fence to enter and sit down at pitchside to watch the game in order to solve the problem of overcrowdedness in the stands. In addition, there are still many fans outside the stadium that cannot enter the stadium in time due to too many crowds in the stadium.

In order to maintain order, even though the players of both teams were still playing, the police fired tear gas at everyone, causing the panic-stricken audience to flee, and even most of the fans broke on the pitch and covered their face to try to avoid inhaling the poisonous gas released by the tear gas with the players. Due to the seriousness of the situation, the referee on duty immediately suspended the game.

However, shortly afterward, Sergio Berni, the local security minister of the Bueno Aires district, brought the bad news and confirmed that a male fan at the scene had unfortunately died of suffocation. Berni revealed that the fan died of heart problem complications on the way to the hospital while being transported by ambulance. In order to respect the privacy of the deceased, Berni did not disclose the identity, age and characteristics of the deceased male fan.

Tragedy repeats itself

With the world still reeling from the grief of last weekend's tragedy at the Kanjurahan Stadium Disaster in East Java, Indonesia, what happened at the Estadio Juan Carmelo Zelillo could be called a replica of the aforementioned incident.

On October 2, 2022, a Liga Indonesia 1 Java Derby match between Arema Malang and the state's fierce-rivals Persbaya Surabaya was played at the Kanjurahan Stadium in East Java, Indonesia.

After the game, the Arema fans who were unwilling to accept that their beloved club had lost the game swarmed into the pitch and then climbed over the fence to beat the Persbaya fans. The violent conflict between the two sides quickly escalated. 

At that time, the Persbaya players had hid in the locker room, but the Arema players who were still on the pitch could not escape from being beaten by their own fans.

In order to control the situation, the local police rushed to the scene and fired tear gas. As a result, with the sound of gunfire and tear gas bombing, there was an unfortunate incident of human crush and stampede when the fans of both sides fled around. After the incident, Wiyanto Wijoyo, Head of the Health Department of Malang State in Indonesia regretted that because the number of injured fans was too large, the local hospital could not handle so many injured people at the same time, thus 125 fans had already passed away shortly after the incident after they had been sent to the hospital. Two of the deceased were police officers, many children were also killed, and as many as 180 people were seriously injured.

After that, the Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered a thorough investigation of the disaster and suspended all domestic leagues. So far, several officials have resigned over the disaster, although authorities are still investigating the cause of the police firing of tear gas.

Similar to what happened in another most tragic incident in English football

Not only that, but the process of this tragedy happened to be very similar to the Hillsborough Disaster that occurred in Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989.

Hillsborough Stadium is the home ground for Sheffield Wednesday. Due to the structural problems and disorder of the stadium, 5,000 Liverpool fans could not enter the stadium after the start of the game. The police officer opened the gate but did not give the necessary guidance, causing 5,000 people to flock to the same Leppings Lane pen. The crowding caused serious human crush and stampede, with casualties amounting to a total of 96 killed and over 200 injured.

However, due to cover-ups and lies of the police officers present, most importantly Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police David Duckenfield, the tampering of evidence, the malicious reports of The Sun and the mishandling of the government, so far no one has taken due responsibility for the Hillsborough Disaster.

On October 17, 2011, the British government stated that it would release all top-secret confidential documents on the matter and restart the inquest. On September 12, 2012, the results of the inquest were officially released, the truth of the tragedy was revealed, and the fans were finally given justice. On April 26, 2016, the jury of the British High Court ruled that the reason for the fatal human crush and stampede accident was the negligence of the South Yorkshire Police and the ineffective organization, management and control of the scene, which eventually led to the loss of control of the crowd, and the fatal stampede caused a tragedy which led to the 96 fans who were unlawfully killed.

However, on July 29, 2021, the Premier League giants issued an obituary on their official website stating that the death of Andrew Devine, a male fan who was unfortunately paralyzed for life after the tragedy, brought the death toll of the Hillsborough Disaster to 97.