Saturday, a much anticipated cup tie, and a full-house stadium.

What happened at Hillsborough on the 15th of April 1989 remains known to almost every mainstream European football fan – 96 people lost their lives in a FA Cup semi-final tie between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The Sheffield Wednesday F.C.’s home venue quickly turned into havoc, and all the efforts to contain the disaster were late to come. As a result, an incident forever stained football and its fans in the days to come.

While we turn back and look at the Hillsborough disaster every year and still learn the lessons, there’s another similar event that closely resembles the tragedy and has had the same impact on the local love for football. The story comes from Nepal, where 70 people were killed at a stampede in the Dasharath Rangashala, the nation’s only international stadium to date.

A year apart, different sides of the globe, yet the same story. Dasharath Rangashala (Rangashala: Stadium in Nepali) hosting the final of Tribhuwan Challenge Shield, filled an anticipated crowd of 27,000+ football fanatics. The city of Kathmandu goes wild when it comes to football, and the Saturday afternoon of 12th March 1988 was no anomaly. People poured in to watch local favourites Janakpur Cigarette Factory side go head to head against Bangladeshi side Mukti Juddha FC for the title. Just as the away side took the lead and the home fans waited for an equalizer, things went wrong.

Showing a deadly resemblance to the Hillsborough disaster, the havoc, caused due to a sudden change in weather made people rush towards the single entrance that was open – the southern gate. All the other gates in the stadium were closed to prevent freeloaders from coming in. As the weather changed and the chaos began unfolding itself, no one could fix anything.

The Southern Gate and the aftermath of the disaster.

(Min Ratna Bajracharya/ The Kathmandu Post)

At Hillsborough, the scenes were different, yet the outcome and the cause were similar – a demonstration of how infrastructural and management lapses can compound a sport that has ‘beautiful’ tagged in it. The north-western suburb of Sheffield saw some 24,000 Liverpool supporters and 29,000 Nottingham Forest supporters make their way for the tie, with the lack of proper decision making at the right time causing the havoc. David Duckenfield, the police commander for the fixture, ordered to open gate C to ease off the congestion outside Leppings Lane turnstile, causing people to fall upon each other to death.

While the disaster was horrendous, what followed was a comely gesture in both the incidents. In substitute of the lives that had been lost, football clutched why it’s bound to be beautiful. Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool manager at the time the disaster took place, attended funerals of the deceased. Steven Gerrard, just eight when the disaster took place, took his firms to lead his team after he saw the follow up of how emotions worked with football.

On the other side of the globe, the disaster made quite a few changes. Two high-ranked professionals resigned on moral grounds and fans still remember as if it was yesterday. Janakpur’s striker described the aftermath as ‘equivalent to a horror scene’ and could never forget the happenings.

The damage, however, had been done. Nepal saw a sharp decline in the number of spectators for the domestic fixture and still struggles to appeal its fanatic mass to make way towards Rangashala’s gates for a domestic fixture. Football suffered for a sin it never did.

The reason for the Hillsborough until 2012, was said to be ‘hooligans’ outside the Liverpool supporters’ entrance, not the errors, defects, and delays. As of Dasharath Stadium, the case lies as a horrible event, not a lesson-learning one that invites significant changes.

The tunnels leading to the turnstile, which were a bottleneck to the congestion.

(BBC)

After 30 years of two of the largest stadium disasters globally, what continues to build-up is the impact as we realize how to take things seriously. The infrastructures, as expected, have been better and events like these will not happen (probably) yet what will forever remain are the tears and lives that will be counted on as football’s chores, not anything else’s.

Support Us on Patreon and help us grow

Like Loading...