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Tuesday, July 02, 2013

WHAT IF? - Things had gone seriously wrong


Sometimes it feels as though you’re all alone with an important theory or view and that the rest of the world doesn’t really give a monkey about or doesn’t realize the potential of what might have happened.
OK, there was no disaster at the Maracana stadium on Sunday night at the Confederations Cup final. But let me tell you what happened and see if you think it could all have ended so differently.

There have been protest marches almost every day since I’ve been in Brazil, marches that are usually timed to coincide with an international football match. They can turn pretty violent too in Brazil. Tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber bullets are all commonplace, but the one thing the police appear pretty well drilled about is keeping the protests and the football separate. Marches are stopped a mile or so from the ground where 40-50,000 people have gathered.
The fun and games can usually kick off in both places and there’s rarely any huge drama apart from cuts and bruises, some sore eyes from the gas. No big drama.
But in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, a relatively small demonstration got out of control. Somehow, the 5,000 or so marchers were allowed to make their way almost to the entrance of the Maracana stadium, where the final of the Confederations Cup between Brazil and Spain was just about to begin, watched by 73,000 spectators making one hell of a din.
The march turned violent. Molotov cocktails were thrown at police, who responded by laying down a fusillade of tear gas. That cloud did its job of dispersing the protesters, but it also headed towards the ground.
It just so happened that I had nipped up to my press seat to listen to the national anthems (a stirring experience in Brazil) and just caught the first Brazilian goal and stepped out on to the concourse of the stadium to head back to my office in the bowels of the stadium to work. As I stepped out, I noticed several men in FIFA suits sprinting in front of me: a strange sight for these urbane characters who stroll around the place as though they own it!. I also noticed a couple of stadium workers rubbing their eyes. And then I felt it; a smell I hadn’t experienced for 20 years, since I was a foreign correspondent. Tear gas. It’s a nasty, sour smell that tightens the back of the throat and makes you choke.
I noticed stadium volunteers and workers on the course rubbing their eyes and food stands closing quickly.
My immediate thought was: what the hell happens if this drifts into the stadium itself and causes a panic. It could. People aren’t used to tear gas and to feeling as though they can’t breathe. There could be a rush to the exits. And I have enough knowledge of panic in football stadiums that the consequences could be catastrophic.
But it didn’t happen. Happily, the cloud of tear gas had partially dispersed by the time it blew past the spectators and they hardly noticed, although a couple of players said they felt it briefly.  Not to be a doom merchant, but what if?? What if more gas had been fired and it blew into the stadium in a concentrated stream. There could well have been panic.
I asked FIFA, which was responsible for the tournament, to comment on the scare. They weren’t particularly interested. To be fair to them, what often happens with FIFA is that little is said publicly but that the s*** hits the fan in private. I don’t know, but I suspect there were some very angry private meetings today between FIFA, local organisers and the police.
Let’s not forget. The World Cup, many times bigger than the tournament that has just finished, will take place here in a year’s time. Let’s hope a few lessons have been learned.




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