At least 125 people died on Saturday evening following a crowd movement after a match in eastern Java. The historian and sociologist Sébastien Louis, who studied supporter in Indonesia, returns to the sporting context.
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Initially, several mille trees of angry supporters of the Arema FC team had entered the field of the Kanjuruhan stadium, after the defeat of their team 3 to 2 against that of Persebaya Surabaya. The supporters were then sprayed with tear gas by the police. Many people have been fatally trampled on; Survivors have described spectators taken from panic, blocked by the crowd.
Author of the ultra book, the other football protagonists (Mare and Martin, November 2017, 440 pages), the historian and sociologist Sébastien Louis went to the Kanjuruhan stadium in 2018.
How is characterized the passion for football in Indonesia?
It is not very well known, but Indonesia is a country where people are football fanatics. When there is a match between two clubs whose supporters are rival or friends, this drains considerable audiences. The “mania” are the local supporters organized on the South American model. They sing the whole match in support of their club. There are also ultra groups and tapes of hooligans, on the English model. When I was in Indonesia in 2018, I saw 5,000 AREMA FC club supporters [based in the Malang region] moving to Jakarta, more than 800 kilometers.
In Malang (as in Surabaya), the club is everywhere in the street, especially with murals and banners on the walls of houses sometimes. There is also a district near the city center which is entirely painted in blue, the color of the Arema FC club.
Saturday evening, the tragedy took place after A match between two rival clubs. What was the context?
It is a regional derby, on the island of Java is, between Persebaya, the team of Surabaya, the second largest city in the country, and the Arema FC, the Malang team. You should know that the Persian players arrived at the Kanjuruhan stadium in a armored police vehicle. The supporters threw stones against the vehicle. Even if there was no risk for the players to be affected, this illustrates the level of tension of this match.
Since 2006, supporters of the two camps have been prohibited from moving to the city of the Rival club. There is such a tension that when the opposing supporters are not there, it is the players who are targeted. [Saturday] evening, the AREMA supporters, disappointed, wanted to attack their own players. The defeat of their team (3-2) precipitated the invasion of the field.
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