Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has ordered a full audit of stadiums but said that locked gates had contributed to the crush over the weekend that left 131 dead and 400 injured when police fired tear gas, causing panic at the end of a local league match in East Java.
Mr Widodo made the statement after touring the Kanjuruhan soccer stadium in Malang city for a first-hand look at the scene of one of the world’s deadliest sporting disasters.
“I want to know the root of the problem that caused this tragedy so that we can find the best solution,” Mr Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, said on Wednesday. “I will order the public works minister to audit all stadiums used for the [football] league.”
Indonesia's chief security minister said a task force had been created and that the investigation would take two to three weeks.
The president also visited the victims recovering at Saiful Anwar General Hospital and pledged a thorough investigation into what had transpired on Saturday night.
He instructed his government to cover the cost of the best medical treatment available for the injured and said that families of the dead would be given 50 million rupiahs ($3,300).
Several institutions and the East Java provincial administration will give an additional compensation of between 10 million and 15 million rupiahs ($650 and $1,000) to each of the victims’ families.
Police continued to insist that the gates at the Kanjuruhan stadium were open but were too narrow and could only accommodate two people at a time when hundreds were trying to escape.
Indonesia’s national football association said that because of a lack of workers, only a few people were ordered to open the gates and they had not yet reached some doors when spectators began rushing to escape tear gas fired by police in an attempt to control fans who had run on to the pitch.
Police acted after some of the 42,000 Arema FC fans ran on to the field in anger after their team was defeated 3-2, its first loss at home against visiting Persebaya Surabaya in 23 years.
“As an illustration, I saw the problem was there are locked doors, steep stairs and panic,” Mr Widodo said. “But all of this will be concluded later by an inquiry team.”
Mr Widodo said that he spoke by phone with Fifa President Gianni Infantino on Monday to brief him on the investigation. They also discussed Indonesia’s preparations in hosting the 2023 Fifa Under-20 World Cup.
Mr Widodo said that Mr Infantino ensured him that “Fifa is ready to help us to improve our football management.
“I think we really need a total evaluation of our entire football management of the matches, stadiums, spectators, time and security,” he said. “So that this stadium disaster will never occur again.”
According to recommendations by Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation, exits at stadiums, for safety purposes, must be unlocked at all times during a game. Those rules do not necessarily apply to domestic or national leagues but nevertheless are a safety standard, as is the recommendation against the use of tear gas as a crowd-control measure.
The deaths at the stadium included 17 children while 440 people were injured. At least 61 were still in hospital as of Wednesday, 29 of them in critical condition.
The Football Association of Indonesia has banned Arema from hosting any matches attended by its supporters in Malang until next year. The club’s chief executive, Abdul Harris, and the security co-ordinator, Suko Sutrisno, have been banned from participating in football for life because they had not secured the field and delayed the opening of the gates.
An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts on Monday and 18 others were being investigated for responsibility in the firing of tear gas.
