Honoring Lives Lost: Accra Ghana Stadium Stampede

[00:00:00] On May 9th, 2001, in a soccer match featuring two of Ghana's best teams at Akura Stadium,

[00:00:09] a riot was incited causing 126 people to lose their lives, all due to issues with the stadium

[00:00:19] and how police handled the matter. Today we're going to dive into this tragic event and hope

[00:00:25] it never happens again. Today on Daily Sports History.

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[00:01:00] slash. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive

[00:01:07] into sports history every day. So first we're going to dive into what led up to this match.

[00:01:13] It was a match versus the Akura Heart of Oak versus the Kumaseku, two of the best teams in

[00:01:20] the Ghana Premier League, which started in 1957, which replaced the Gold Coastal Cup competition

[00:01:29] and is organized by the Ghana Football Association, which at the time was ranked the 11th best league

[00:01:35] in Africa and the 67th best league in the world. But that didn't mean that these teams didn't

[00:01:42] have a huge following in Ghana. Now the Heart of Oaks actually started way back in 1911

[00:01:48] when the governor of the Golden Coast put together a team to compete in the Akura Football League.

[00:01:54] And in 1956 they finally joined the Ghana Premier League where they have been ever since.

[00:01:59] And in 2000, they had actually won the Ghana FA Cup, the Ghana Premier League and for the

[00:02:05] first time in history the CAF Champion League which helped them make the FIFA World Cup.

[00:02:12] Now the Isanti Gotutku team started, has a rich history as well as they started in 1926

[00:02:19] when they originally named the Kumasee Titanic. Although they bounced around from team name to

[00:02:25] team name, they eventually settled 1935 on Isanti Gotutku which means porcupine and is their

[00:02:32] official mascot and is on their logo as it has an arsenal of shark spikes to attack the enemy.

[00:02:39] And leading up to the game these teams were number one and number two in the Ghana Premier League

[00:02:44] and this game would weigh heavily on who would win the league. And over 30,000 spectators were

[00:02:50] in attendance on May night 2001. Isanti had the league through most of the match until late in

[00:02:57] the game when Akura scored two late goals giving them a 2-1 advantage. And after this the Kutoko

[00:03:04] team was very upset and started to throw bottles onto the pitch and eventually continued their

[00:03:12] dissatisfaction ripping the actual chairs they were sitting on out of the ground and throwing them

[00:03:19] onto the pitch as well. In response to this, they called the game ending it for a win for Akura

[00:03:24] 2-1 but the Gotutku fans would not let go. They continued their rampage throwing everything

[00:03:31] they could find onto the field and the police there started to fire teargrass and rubber bullets

[00:03:37] into the crowd which caused a panic and caused everyone in the stands to start to run. But

[00:03:44] the problem was the stadium had not opened their gates yet as they had just called the

[00:03:49] match and they normally closed the gates to not allow anyone to come into the game that

[00:03:54] had not paid and they would open them as the game ended but it ended so abruptly they

[00:03:59] had not opened the gates yet which caused fans to get stuck at the gates and the fans behind them

[00:04:06] to push and they kept pushing and pushing causing a bottleneck and many were getting

[00:04:13] injured and collapsed on the ground causing many to be trampled or have issues breathing

[00:04:18] causing a lot of trauma. For 116 people that passed away during this tragic moment their

[00:04:24] cause of death was compressive exficia which means that their lungs were compressed on the torso

[00:04:32] preventing them from breathing basically crushing their airways so they could not breathe and sadly

[00:04:38] this included men women and children. 10 more fans died of trauma from being trampled and many

[00:04:45] more who were injured another issue that caused this was there were so many people that were

[00:04:51] injured that the nearby hospitals could not keep up and could not provide medical attention to many

[00:04:57] of the spectators that needed it. Some fans were even put into the morgue and later woke up

[00:05:03] just narrowly missing being buried alive. Following this event Ghana president John

[00:05:09] Herr called for three days of mourning and the Ghana Premier League suspended a month of play

[00:05:15] officials were looking into the event to see why it happened and what they could do

[00:05:20] to prevent this moment and they actually brought charges against the police that were there for

[00:05:26] over a hundred accounts of manslaughter as they were thought to have used too much force that caused

[00:05:34] 126 people to lose their lives because this wasn't the first time this happened and back in 1964

[00:05:41] when Peru was playing Argentina in a soccer match in Argentina and for a chance to make it to the

[00:05:48] Olympics fans again started to incite riot-like activities and the police there shot tear gas

[00:05:55] and caused fans to panic and this one led to 328 deaths due to the same issues of gates being

[00:06:05] closed and bottlenecks causing people to be crushed and not be able to breathe so there was precedent

[00:06:12] of this happening and they should have known how to handle it better because if they wouldn't have

[00:06:16] reacted the way they did chances are we wouldn't have lost that many people but they were not

[00:06:22] convicted of these crimes despite the committee that looked into the events saying they acted

[00:06:28] incorrectly they said the moment was one that someone could not prepare for and their actions

[00:06:35] were not the only reason for the cause despite many families and victims including 148 children

[00:06:43] that were left without parents still calling for justice they continue to live without it

[00:06:48] they now do a remembering walk every may 9th and hold a may 9th cup to celebrate the lives of

[00:06:56] those they lost and during the may 9th cup the fans in attendance continuously shout never again

[00:07:03] never again never again as we may love our teams and we may not like our rivals but in no way

[00:07:09] should anyone lose their life for the games they love so always remember that when you meet a rival

[00:07:15] fan that they have a life just like you that's worth living and sports are for enjoyment and we

[00:07:22] should never have these tragedies ever again and if you have another great topic for us to cover

[00:07:28] on daily sports history please send us an email at the email address dailysportshistoryatgmail.com

[00:07:35] we'd love to hear from you and the great moments that you love the great moments that you love

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