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Fans attempting to enter the stadium without tickets forced the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia to be delayed by more than an hour.
The match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, home of the National Football League’s (NFL) Miami Dolphins and one of the sites for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, was pushed back several times as organisers worked to deal with the issues.
A statement issued on X by stadium staff said: ‘Thousands of fans without tickets attempted to forcibly enter the stadium, putting other fans, security and law enforcement officers at extreme risk.’
The statement said gates had been shut ‘to control the entry process at a much slower rate and ensure everyone is kept safe’.
Kick-off for the final of the South American continental national team tournament was initially pushed back by half an hour before a further 15-minute delay.
The stadium said it had been delayed ‘until further notice’ with the players finally returning to the pitch to warm up 40 minutes after the scheduled start with the match eventually getting underway more than an hour and 15 minutes late.
Miami-Dade County police department said there had been “several incidents” due to the “unruly behaviour of fans trying to access the stadium”.
A sellout crowd of more than 65,000 was expected with Conmebol, South American soccer’s governing body, posting on X the day before the game that fans must have tickets to enter the parking lot.
The delay to the kick-off follows criticism of an extended half-time interval from 15 minutes to 25 minutes for a concert by Colombian singer Shakira.
Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo said: “It should be like any game. It should be the 15 minutes according to the regulations.”
There may still be two years until the World Cup is co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico but this incident will have sent alarm bells ringing among stakeholders.
The crowd chaos is reminiscent of the issues involving supporters at the 2022 Uefa Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France. A subsequent report stated the problems almost led to the event becoming a ‘mass fatality catastrophe’. The crowd trouble also prompted questions over Paris’ ability to stage a gathering of the size and scale of the Olympic Games.
Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which is set to be one of 16 host cities across North America for the 2026 World Cup, must now move quickly to ensure proper protocols are in place so something like this doesn’t happen again and convince the doubters the venue is ready to stage games.
The debacle caps off a troubling end to the 2024 Copa America. There were calamitous scenes for the semi-final between Uruguay and Colombia in Charlotte, North Carolina during which Uruguayan players breached the stands and began fighting against opposition supporters.
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