The president of the Colombian Football Federation and his son are among 27 people arrested following crowd control disturbances that broke out at the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia, police said.
Ramon Jesurun and his son Ramon Jamil Jesurun were arrested after the event at Hard Rock Stadium and charged, Miami-Dade police Detective Andre Martin told The Associated Press.
The two men are charged with three counts of assault and battery on a public official after they were accused of fighting several stadium security guards.
Arrest reports indicate the two men attempted to gain access to the field through a tunnel where media were gathering after the game.
They were stopped by security and the police report states that they “became irate” because of the delay.
A verbal altercation eventually escalated into a physical altercation, with one guard placing an “open palm” on Ramon Jamil Jesurun’s chest to “guide him back” and the younger Jesurun grabbing the guard “by the neck” and pulling him to the ground before throwing “two punches that struck” the guard, the report said.
The two men were taken into custody after midnight.
The Colombian soccer federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Ramón Jesurún, 71, has been president of the Colombian football federation since 2015 and vice-president of CONMEBOL, the South American football governing body that organizes the Copa America tournament.
In a statement released Monday, the organization said it regretted the scene in which countless fans entered the stadium without tickets and “tarnished” the event.
The match was delayed for more than an hour as authorities tried to control the situation, eventually deciding to let some fans in without going through security checks.
“In this situation, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions taken by the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, in accordance with the contractual responsibilities established for security operations,” the organization said.
“In addition to the preparations provided for in this contract, CONMEBOL recommended to these authorities the procedures tested in events of this magnitude, which were not taken into account.”
Hard Rock Stadium, the site of the 2026 World Cup, said security was a shared responsibility between stadium officials, the organization, CONCACAF (the governing body that oversees soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean) and local police.
“More than double the staff” used for a typical event were on site Sunday, a stadium spokesperson said in a statement.
Photos of distressed fans are circulating after thousands of people without tickets tried to gain access to the Copa America final. (AP: Lynne Sladky)
Miami-Dade police said more than 800 law enforcement officers were present at the game. In addition to the arrests, 55 people were ejected, they added.
Distressed fans and damaged stadium
It was a chaotic scene just hours before the scheduled start at 8pm local time of the championship match between the two South American countries.
Fans forced their way in, jumping over security barriers and pushing past police and stadium guards, some appearing hysterical as they searched for the people they had arrived with.
The damage appeared to be extensive. Videos and images posted on social media showed the side railings of an escalator inside the stadium broken, with shoes, soda cans, reading glasses and clothing left behind.
Security barriers at a checkpoint at the stadium’s southwest entrance were bent as thousands of people, including crying children, pushed against them.
The Hard Rock Stadium statement said stadium officials contacted tournament organizers around 8 p.m. local time and decided to open the gates to ticketed and non-ticketed fans who rushed to the entrance for fear of stampedes and serious injuries. The gates were then closed and many ticketed fans remained outside.
The stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, home to the NFL’s Dolphins, will host seven World Cup games in 2026, including a quarterfinal and a third-place match.
Thousands of fans rushed to the gates ahead of the Copa America final. (USA TODAY Sports via AP: Nathan Ray Seebeck)
FIFA organizes the World Cup and is a separate organization from CONMEBOL. FIFA is an international federation that oversees more than 200 associations affiliated to regional bodies such as CONMEBOL.
Ramón Jesurún is also a member of the FIFA Council.
FIFA did not immediately respond Monday to AP’s request for comment on the crowd control issues and how it would prevent similar problems in 2026.
Lawyer says referees should have learned lessons from England-Italy chaos
Attorney Steve Adelman, a crowd control expert and vice president of the Event Safety Alliance, said Hard Rock organizers failed to understand that Sunday’s game would draw passionate fans, desperate to see their teams, some willing to force their way in.
“A match between fans of two rival South American nations is about as passionate as it gets,” he said.
Mr Adelman said organisers should have learned lessons from the 2021 European Championship final at Wembley Stadium in London, where ticketless England fans forced their way into their team’s match against Italy.
The melee injured 19 police officers and resulted in 53 arrests.
“Unfortunately, international football matches have been marred by this kind of aggressive behaviour from fans,” Mr Adelman said.
“This behavior is neither desirable nor good, but it is reasonably foreseeable… They had to anticipate the crowd they were likely to have, not the crowd they wanted to have.”
AP
Editor’s Note (16/7/24): An earlier version of this article contained incorrect information provided by the Associated Press that referred to a 1989 crush at an English soccer match as the result of fans forcing their way into the stadium. In 2016, an inquest into the Hillsborough tragedy found that the victims of the crash had been unlawfully killed and that the behaviour of fans had not contributed to the tragedy.
