Sport excites passions – it’s meant to. After all, it’s combat in a sporting context, one against one, or team against team. For the combatants and their followers, it matters. It’s us against them, winner takes all, including the bragging rights – until the next time. There are few completely unbiased observers at most sporting events, and despite what might be said at the time, not many are truly content with that so-called “honourable draw”. Victory is all, with some fanatical supporters claiming it’s almost a matter of life and death. Tragically, yet again, sport really has become a matter of life or death. Close to 130 football supporters died in Indonesia after a match between bitter rivals in an overcrowded stadium pitch invasion, with police using tear gas and fans being crushed at barriers as they tried to escape. FIFA, world football’s governing body, states that no “crowd control gas” should be used or carried by stewards or police at matches, and the organisation’s president, Gianni Infantino said the incident was “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” But are these events really beyond comprehension, when merely the names and dates of previous stadium disasters are enough to provoke horrifying memories and images? Heysel, 1964, Ibrox, 1971, Hillsborough, 1989. There are many others of course, and even more that could easily have led to tragedy, one of the most recent being last year’s delayed Euro 2020 final between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium. More than 2,000 ticketless fans targeted disabled access entrances to smash their way into the stadium, leading to clashes with police. A Football Association commissioned report later stated that fatalities and widespread injury were only narrowly averted after authorities failed to plan for the “worst-case scenario,” despite a series of warnings.

Football is not alone among sports to have experienced stadium disasters or near disasters. In 1995 during a cricket match between India and New Zealand at the Nagpur stadium, a pavilion collapse saw 13 people lose their lives, with another 70 injured. But a glance at the records shows that crowd trouble leading to fatalities at football stadiums have been a continuing part of the game worldwide for more than a century. Why should this be the case? Is it because football, more than any other sport, inflames rather than just excites passions? Because football can spark anger, fury, violent emotions leading to mass violent actions? The toxic rivalry between some clubs – supporters, players and coaches included – does little or nothing to ease tinderbox situations. The unedifying sight of a wild-eyed manager snarling and bawling into the face of a touchline official can only encourage rage on the terraces. And an entire team surrounding and berating a ref is certain to do the same. Clearly, governing bodies, police and security staff must constantly be improving their security and safety measures, but isn’t it time for managers, coaches and players to raise their game too?