MARC STRYDOM | Not enough is being said about another security failure at Sundowns-Esperance

With the positive coverage of a Mamelodi Sundowns supporter heroically saving an Esperance de Tunis fan from serious injury, and blame being put on the Tunisians’ role in starting violence at Loftus Versfeld, the point of the lack of  security has been missed.

The videos shared on social media reveal much about the events that took place in the upper east stand of Loftus minutes following the final whistle after Sundowns beat Esperance 1-0 in the first leg of their Caf Champions League quarterfinal.

They appear to show — and the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) investigation may well back up this assertion, also made by Downs — that Esperance fans, unhappy with the result and perhaps believing Peter Shalulile’s 54th-minute winner had a hint of offside to it, started the unruliness. Some videos show the Tunisians breaking down temporary fencing barriers erected to keep them separate from Sundowns fans and hurling missiles, including flares.

The videos also seem to show the security response was sorely lacking.

They show that as the Esperance supporters begin some unruliness, there are a handful of security officials in the east stand nearby. They are not enough for the part of the stadium most likely to be a flashpoint of trouble on the afternoon. One can speculate the few who are there are not sufficiently trained to know how to deal with the situation. They understandably hang back. Where are the immediate reinforcements in numbers of security officials — as seen in stadiums around the world where security is taken seriously — to snuff out the incident that has still not become violent before it does?

When security was unable to intervene, Sundowns supporters responded. They began to clash physically with the Esperance fans. And while reports afterwards were that only minor injuries were treated, it could all have been much worse.

As a section of Downs fans rushed the Esperance supporters, the Tunisians fled from the east to the less populated north stand via a narrow adjoining section, dangerously jumping a low wall and railing near a big drop-off. In a “mini-stampede” one supporter fell off, and had to grab a railing. Had it not been for the interjection of Downs supporter Siboniso Masango in a now well-told story to assist the Tunisian, he would have lost his grip and fallen, resulting in serious injury at least.

Sundowns will hope there are no further such incidents when they play the return match at the hostile Stade Olympique Hammadi-Agrebi in Radès, outside Tunis on Tuesday (9pm South African time).

While it was a Caf match, the incident highlights a trend of clubs from the Premier Soccer League (PSL) skimping on security and the league not policing this issue enough.

Sundowns should be setting standards, as they do on the field, for levels of security in matches off it. This is the richest club in the country. They are also the club of Caf president Patrice Motsepe, though he has stepped aside from running the team, with son Tlhopie standing in as chair as the mining magnate begins his second term.

If a club as rich as Downs is skimping on security, what are others doing?

South African football supporters are famously peaceful — the Kaizer Chiefs-Orlando Pirates Soweto derby is unique in having rival fans sit together. Yet football is a game of passion and stadium incidents plague it more than other sports globally.

This reporter has experienced crushes entering Loftus for a Sundowns-Chiefs league match as a fan, to sit in the stands. Such instances are not isolated in football matches. As journalists with our stadium parking passes, we are often exempt from such experiences. But even at a recent Soweto derby, a stroll round FNB Stadium bore witness to fans battling through crowds to enter through the gates because there were not enough security personnel, barriers and markers to steer supporters into orderly queues.

Apart from the danger of injury or worse should too many fans arrive late, this is not the experience football supporters should have to undergo to watch live matches. If you want an answer to why so many matches remain poorly attended, much of the explanation lies there. The experience for the drawcard games is often not as comfortable, and sometimes not as safe, as it should be.

This is not helped by major football matches often not being as well-policed by traffic authorities surrounding stadiums as big games in other sports such as rugby. Why is access to Ellis Park, just next to Hillbrow, for big Springbok Test matches seemingly so much easier than to big football games? Do the traffic and police authorities take football, and its fans, less seriously?

There are many other recent and not-too-distant examples of security issues.

In May 2015 a fan was shot dead in a pitch invasion after Chiefs won their last match of the season at Nelson Mandela Stadium against Chippa United to lift the Premiership title. A police statement said “the number of private security guards deployed was not sufficient and public order police members were deployed to assist with controlling the crowd that stormed towards the players and officials”. A scuffle ensued between two fans and a policeman, one of whom tried to grab the officer's firearm, and a shot went off.

In February 2017 there were fights and millions of rand in damage as Pirates fans stormed the pitch in a 6-0 league loss against Sundowns at Loftus. In July 2017 two fans died in a stampede accessing FNB for the Carling Black Label preseason match between Chiefs and Pirates.

In April 2018 Chiefs fans stormed the pitch at Moses Mabhida Stadium after a Nedbank Cup semifinal defeat to Free State Stars, where a security guard was severely beaten, a ball boy and several other spectators were injured and millions of rand of damage sustained.

While there have been fewer pitch invasions in recent years, Chiefs have been fined multiple times in the past few seasons for incidents of missile-throwing. In February 100,000 fans packed Pirates' 1-0 derby league win against Chiefs when only 87,000 tickets had been sold, forcing Stadium Management South Africa to change a ticket system that had become too easy to forge, while also admitting some supporters bribed gate officials for entry.

Matches regularly kick off late due to issues with access to stadiums. In February 2023 a clash between TS Galaxy and Chiefs at Mbombela Stadium was delayed for 30 minutes, yet only 25,000 tickets had been sold for the 43,000-capacity venue.

The PSL cites the league and its clubs meeting the standards set down in the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act as evidence it complies with security standards. But the reality is what we see on TV of standards abroad, and what is witnessed and experienced in South African grounds, are not the same.

It is short-sighted of the PSL and its clubs not to see that the image portrayed on TV and by those who attend matches and have bad experiences will have lasting effects. To some extent football supporters have grown used to having to push and elbow their way into games that should be comfortably accessible, and the threat of danger erupting in stadiums with not enough officials there to respond. Already, though, anecdotally and by what is witnessed in stands, there are particularly higher income-earning supporters preferring to avoid football and attend more family-friendly cricket and rugby games.

Far more important is the safety element. Whoever started the fight at Loftus, the security response to stop it should have been better. People have been hurt and lives have been lost and more will be until security at football matches is taken more seriously by its authorities.