Abelic Incident AGAIN Against Football, This Time 2 Supporters Died And Dozens Of Criticals

Illustration of football. (Photo: Pexels/Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Two supporters were reported dead and dozens injured ahead of the Arab Gulf Cup final which brought together the Oman and Iraqi national teams.

This match is scheduled to take place at the Basra International Stadium, Iraq, Thursday, January 19 evening at 23.00 WIB. However, the incident above made the fate of the match unclear.

Iraq's official news agency, which quoted the medical team at the scene as saying, in addition to the two people who died as a result of urging outside the stadium, another 80 injured were currently in critical condition.

Al Jazeera reported that thousands of fans who did not have tickets had gathered outside the stadium since dawn. They come in hopes of watching a rare international match there.

"Thousands of people arrived last night and some slept on the streets, causing road closures and many security forces to come to control the crowd," said Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Jasim.

An AFP photographer inside the stadium said stadium entrances were still closed when pressure occurred. Images posted on social media show human oceans outside the stadium.

Journalist Mahmoud Abdelwahed from Al Jazeera, who reported from Basra, said that some supporters who did not have tickets tried to force their way into the stadium. There are at least 60 thousand supporters outside the stadium.

"The security forces have called for them to exercise restraint and not push around at the gate. The interior minister asked fans to refrain from going to the city," Abdelwahed said.

Iraq was previously told to apologize to their neighboring Kuwait, after a fight in the VIP stands that prevented representatives of its leaders from attending the opening ceremony earlier this month.

The tournament started on January 6 and was followed by Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Iraq. This is the first time since 1979 Iraq has hosted this tournament.