FIFA get it right and wrong over the Ivory Coast tragedy

Back in March I wrote about the terrible tragedy in the Ivory Coast when twenty fans died and one hundred and thirty fans were injured before a game between the host country and Malawi.

Tragedy

The scale of the tragedy that occurred when approximately 36,000 people tried to get into the ground for the game, into a stadium that holds little over 34,000, was huge and put much of the sensationalism and gossip around the game in general into some sort of perspective.

FIFA has conducted an enquiry into the events at the Felix Boigny stadium back in March. Some good things have come out of the enquiry. It was an enquiry that needed to be undertaken and FIFA were right to go ahead and they are right to publish their findings in relatively quick time.

Donate

One of the better measures FIFA has announced is that they will donate $96,000 to help set up a fund for the families of the victims. This is not a huge amount of money but it is a good and sensible gesture.

They have also imposed a number of safety measures on the Ivory Coast that will be in place for the next set of World Cup qualifiers in September. These measures include a control cordon that will be set up at least one kilometre from the stadium for the match against Burkina Faso on 5th September.

Cordon

There will also be a separate spectator control cordon around two hundred metres away to prevent non-ticket holders getting through.

The absolute maximum crowd for the game will be set at 20,000 as opposed to the actual ground capacity of 34,600.

A FIFA spokesperson said,

“The total capacity of the stadium will only be allowed in subsequent matches if the above-mentioned measures are applied for each match.”

You could argue, I suppose, that these measures are far too stringent or way too soft, depending on your point of view, but I think we must all agree that FIFA are right to impose some safety conditions after what happened.

Enquiry

During the course of the enquiry FIFA spoke to, amongst others, the Ivorian police, football officials and Government officials but the final disciplinary ruling did not blame anyone for the disaster. It has been written off as a terrible accident that was nobody’s fault and that little could have been done to prevent.

Despite that, FIFA has made the decision to fine the Ivorian football federation the sum of $47,000.

Having given this some thought I would ask what the point of that fine is? If nobody was really to blame on what basis is a fine being issued and if there are reasons to allocate blame how on earth can you put a value on the loss of twenty lives?

Tragic

If there is a way to value such a tragic loss of life I do not think that the calculations that led to a fine of $47,000 should ever be used again. Just what is that amount intended to signify? Just over $2,000 per life as a punishment?

If the incident wasn’t anybody’s fault then by all means make the donation to the families, that is great, by all means impose security and safety conditions, that is great, but do not issue a paltry fine that is an insult to the fans who were injured or died.