FIFA seeks improved security

June 4, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — The leader of soccer’s governing body urged nations Wednesday to avoid treating fans like “prisoners and wild animals” by using fences to hold them back in cramped stadiums.

“We have to go to the roots,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. “We have to go to the causes of some of the tragedies or accidents that happen.”

Blatter made the plea at FIFA’s annual Congress, where several issues were discussed. No votes were taken to decide two significant agenda items — the plan to restrict clubs to a maximum of five foreign players in starting lineups and the idea of lowering the maximum age for the Olympic men’s tournament from 23 to 21.

Most discussion centered on things FIFA would like to implement down the line, improved fan and player security among them.

Nine fans were killed June 1, 2008, at a World Cup qualifier in Liberia when a metal barrier gave way in an overcrowded stadium.

On March 29, as many as 22 died in a stampede shortly before another Cup qualifying match between Ivory Coast and Malawi.

Since 1964, more than 1,300 fans have died in crushes at overcrowded stadiums during international matches worldwide.

Blatter, who ordered investigations into those deaths, said he remains saddened by both tragedies — adding that he believes they would be avoided if fencing wasn’t used or if stadium officials simply turned people away once the venue reached capacity.

“People are not yet in the stadium, the match is starting or is trying to start, there is a lot of noise around and then people like to press,” Blatter said. “Ladies and gentlemen, fences in the stadium are not adequate for [soccer]. Who are behind fences? Prisoners and wild animals. Are [soccer] fans in these two categories?”

In South Africa, organizers of the next World Cup have pledged that the problems that can lead to stadium stampedes in Africa won’t be an issue during the continent’s first World Cup in 2010.