麻豆约拍

Indonesia continues to search for answers and comfort after more than 130 fans died at a football match. There appears to have been a deadly combination at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, East Java, of over-crowding, tear gas being fired by police and blocked exits during the ensuing panic.

The president of Fifa, the game鈥檚 world governing body, called it a 鈥渄ark day鈥� for football.

Host James Reynolds has spent the past week hearing from survivors, who describe how they feel lucky to be alive and now want nothing more to do with football. He also brings together two Indonesian sports broadcasters for their assessment of what went wrong.

The match between local club Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya will forever be remembered as one of the world鈥檚 worst football disasters but unfortunately there have been others in the past.

Herbert Mensah was chairman of a football club 21-years-ago when 126 lives were lost at the Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana. In January 2022, Irene Ndombi was at a match in Cameroon where at least eight people were killed and 38 injured in a crush.

We brought these two survivors together to hear their reactions and to discuss how they have coped with their own emotional aftermath.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 even want to hear or to imagine that a situation like that is occurring elsewhere,鈥� says Irene. 鈥淏ecause each time you hear there is an accident or a stampede, it automatically brings you back to that same scene.鈥�

(Photo: A person cries over a pile of flowers as people gather to remember the victims of a deadly stampede at Kanjuruhan Stadium, in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, 05 October 2022 Credit: Mast Irham/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)