By Alaa Abdel-Ghani Five, the number of people crushed to death in Friday's football tragedy in Iran, does not come near breaking the world record for soccer stampedes. What comes to mind instantly are the big ones. The Heysel riot prior to the 1985 European Cup final that killed 39, mostly Italians when a retaining wall restraining rabid Liverpool fans, collapsed. The Hillsborough tragedy that killed 96 in Sheffield, England in 1989. There are as well lesser-known stampedes but no less deadly. The abandoned club match in Accra which killed over 100 in April 2001. And that same month, in South Africa's Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, 47 died. What is going on? Why is the world's most popular sport killing its followers? Of all the problems, one appears the biggest and least amenable to change: no will to address the problems -- design faults in stadiums, lack of security planning and ticket corruption that allows you to get into an already overcrowded stadium. After any crush of death there is shock to be sure, followed by messages of condolences, followed by promises to do something. The End. It's a fact of life that soccer flourishes in places where there is little money for emergency services or to fix dangerously rundown stadiums. And soccer is for some reason extremely popular in countries which have a lot of people. The rest is thus easy to understand. Soccer is a mass spectator pursuit, a mass influx of nationalistic and fervent followers who are overexcited and at times malevolent. Something else to consider: in the months of April and May, when cups and championships are decided, stadiums cannot stand up to the masses crowding inside and the fever literally hits fever pitch. Stadium control ought to be different. Why do architects design stadiums that are death traps with too few, too small escape outlets that are sometimes locked as thousands try to get in or out. FIFA has tried some preventive measures -- a limit on alcohol consumption in some stadiums -- and sanctions -- the most famous being the five-year blanket ban on English clubs after Heysel. But FIFA, which is rich enough to do something, usually does nothing and prays that nothing happens. Sometimes it's lucky. On Sunday in Cairo, crowd disturbance marred a World Cup qualifier between Egypt and Libya. On the same day in another continental qualifier, Mali and Togo was abandoned when serious crowd trouble that included gunshots erupted following what seemed to be a Togo matchwinner late in the game. In both instances no deaths or serious injuries were reported. But why wait for another stadium to be turned into a morgue as corpses lie, barely concealed under white sheets? Sometimes countries learn. Aging Heysel Stadium, built in 1930, was demolished and replaced by Stade Roi Baudouin. And sometimes they don't. Four years ago, a roof collapsed in Sari, north of Tehran, killing two spectators and injuring 290 during a club match. It is not yet clear why the Iranians were so upset the other night to the point they trampled five to death. (Of the 40 injured, five are in critical condition, meaning the death toll might rise). Iran had just beaten Japan 2-1, propelling them to first in Group B in an Asian World Cup qualifier. Imagine what might have happened had Iran lost. The toll in the 100,000-seat Azadi Stadium in Tehran could have been higher. But did it have to happen at all? Apparently, the consequences of going out to a soccer match are at times much, much more than a fun day out.
