Indonesian fans’ brawl gives football director stitches

The game between the two clubs from Indonesian national championship Liga 1 on Sunday ended with a 1-0 victory for Semarang. In the last minutes of injury time, football hooligans began to riot.

According to CNN Indonesia, it started when Sleman fans in the west stands expressed frustration due to home fans sitting in their area.

Semarang fans in the north stands responded by hurling insults at Sleman fans. After the intense word exchange, the home fans went down the pitch and entered the Sleman fans area and a chaotic brawl scene ensued.

Things quickly got out of control. The fans continued the violence despite interference from others. The referee had to blow the final whistle early.

The brawl injured many people, of which Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) director Sukawi got a bloody head and had to get eight stitches.

The situation only cooled down at Jatidiri Stadium when the heavy rain and security came.

“We will evaluate this incident carefully. In the future we will develop a system that sells tickets online and offline to prevent extreme fans from entering the matches,” Sukawi told CNN Indonesia. “There won’t be extreme fans at Jatidiri anymore. The new system is designed to filter groups of fans that often cause chaos at Jatidiri.”

This is not the first time that Indonesian football has experienced such an incident.

In October 2022, a tragedy occurred at Kanjuruhan Stadium during a game between Persebaya Surabaya and Arema. A riot was followed by a fatal human crush that killed 135 and injured over 500 people. It was the second deadliest disaster in the history of football.