◤Liga Indonesia 1◢ 147 killed in stampede following riot during Arema Balang and Persebaya Surabaya's "East Java Derby"..

Yet another disheartening news which resulted in fans' death following a riot in a football match again! Many Malaysian media outlet and the British outlet Guardian reported on Sunday that, a riot where fans of both sides clashed in a Liga Indonesia 1 match led to more than hundreds of people died.

According to reports, the game is a "East Java Derby" match which was contested by Arema Malang and Persebaya Surabaya in the Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java, Indonesia. At that time, the stadium which could only accommodate 30,000 people was filled with 40,000 fans.

With Guinea-Bissau international forward, Abel Camara scoring twice in a quickfire fashion, Arema was able to fight back to a 2-2 draw against Persebaya before the end of the first half. However, in the second half, the visitor's Japanese forward, Sho Yamamoto scored to restore his side's lead and the away side was able to hold on to the narrow lead until the final whistle blown. Arema Malang thus ended the "Derby" with 3-2 to defeat Persebaya Surabaya.

Origin of the conflict

Unexpectedly, as soon as the final whistle had blown, unwilling to accept their club had lost, Aremas fans stormed into the pitch, crawled over the barrier and beat up the Persebaya fans. According to reports, the Persebaya players had fled to the locker room at the time, but the Arema players who were still on the pitch could not escape from being attacked by their own fans. In order to control the situation, the local SWAT team immediately dispatched to the scene and fired tear gas.

Regretful incident happened

With the sound of gunfire and gas bombing, the fans of both sides unfortunately crushed and trampled on people when they attempted to flee. Afterwards, Wiyanto Wijoyo, the Minister of Health of the Malang Health Bureau of Indonesia, said regretfully that because the number of injured fans was too large, local hospitals could not handle so much injuries at the same time, hence a total of 129 fans had already passed away on the spot before they were even sent to the hospital.

Later, according to a real-time follow-up report from the local media in Indonesia, as of now, the number of unfortunate deaths in this incident has risen to 174. Among them, two deceased were police officers, and many children also have died. While there were also as many as 180 people which were seriously injured.

Temporary suspension

Due to the serious situation, the Indonesian FA issued a statement on Saturday night at 11 o'clock on the Saturday night that all the domestic league will be suspended immediately through their official website. The authorities are also confirming the identity of the deceased in the incident with the police, the government and the Health Bureau.

In addition, Indonesian President Joko Widodo expressed condolences to all the victims who died unfortunately in the incident at 12 am on Sunday, and also reiterated that he had ordered all the domestic leagues to be temporarily suspended immediately. In addition, he also ordered the relevant departments to re-evaluate the safety situation of football games until the security status reached a standard, and also sent a special instruction to the Indonesian National Police Chief to investigate the incident thoroughly.

It is not the first time that such incident had happened

As one of the most successful clubs in Indonesia's football, the East Java Derby of Arema Malang and Persebaya Surabaya has always been one of the fiercest competitions with the fiercest rivalries. Four months ago, on June 22, 2022, in light of Arema's fans' overpassion about their support for the while which in turn caused fans of their opponents to be provoked frequently, the Indonesian government released an statement warned that fans should not lose their rationality. Unexpectedly, they ignored the advice and caused such a heartbroken incident.