Messi crying from the bench with his ankle swollen, Karol G singing the Colombian anthem, the Show Shakira’s performance during an extra-long half-time, Lautaro Martínez’s celebration after the winning goal. The 2024 Copa América final leaves many images to remember, but it is likely that none of them will last as long as those that occurred before the match, at the entrances to the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. About three hours before the start of the match, chaos began. Thousands of fans were crowded around the venue, which has a capacity of 65,000, when suddenly people without tickets began to sneak in. Some people climbed the fences around the stadium, stampedes broke out, the police present were overwhelmed, the stadium doors were closed and the match was delayed indefinitely.
Many people were trapped between the stadium itself and the first perimeter around it. Witnesses say that the space was so small that it was difficult to breathe. Some people were injured, others fainted. Finally, the match started an hour and a quarter later, with the stadium corridors filled with fans who had paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars for their tickets outside. But the football and the music, the spectacle, forced them to quickly turn the page.
The next day, however, the fireworks no longer blind anyone’s gaze and the focus is on the regrettable incidents that, in a cup already tainted by various organizational failures, inevitably stained it even more in the decisive match. The Democratic mayor of Miami, Daniella Levine Cava, spoke out through X to express her outrage at the events and announce an investigation into them. “We are outraged by the unprecedented events that occurred during the Copa América final. The Copa América is organized by Conmebol, and the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) provides security support along with other law enforcement agencies,” she said. She also assured that she will work “with the stadium leaders to ensure that a full review of the night’s events is immediately conducted to assess the entire chain of events, in order to implement the necessary protocols and policies for future matches.”
Authorities in Miami-Dade County, which includes Hard Rock Stadium, have assigned 550 officers, more than usual for sporting events, to provide security, the mayor and local police chief James Reyes said. They have also brought in more personnel from other jurisdictions to help. However, they insist that the responsibility for the chaos does not lie with them, but with Conmebol, which is the organizer and, therefore, responsible for ensuring public order before, during and after the event.
I have never seen such chaos entering a game as this at Hard Rock Stadium.
There should have been better screening from outside, leaving those without a ticket without access. The number of people should not be an excuse, a World Cup will be played here.
People with tickets had a bad time. pic.twitter.com/tBJXIS5C35
— Santiago Bucaram López (@santiagobucaram) July 15, 2024
The photos and videos that spread like wildfire across the internet are damning. In addition to the stampedes and videos of police officers trying in vain to hold back a flood of people, there are others that show individuals trying to enter the stadium through ventilation ducts. Inside and outside the venue there were very small children crying and agitated people, while ambulances arrived and paramedics struggled to treat the injured and unconscious.
Faced with the uncertainty of an indefinite delay, some of the Albiceleste players such as Enzo Fernández, Gonzalo Montiel, Alejandro Garnacho and Alexis Mac Allister left the locker room to look for relatives who had been left outside.
After almost an hour of standstill, Conmebol decided to open the stadium gates to let in fans and somehow alleviate the congestion. As a result, many of them accessed the facilities without having their tickets checked. Shortly before the start of the game, with the stadium packed, probably over the limit, although there is no figure for the number of spectators so far, the gates were closed again.
While authorities are assessing what happened and an official response from Conmebol is awaited, stadium cleaning crews have spent much of the night picking up debris so they can begin the task of rebuilding the damage, which includes escalators, railings, ventilation ducts and more.