The stadium disaster with at least 174 dead took the Indonesian coach Thomas Doll hard. “I am unspeakably sad about the incidents,” said the former national soccer player, who has been in charge of eleven-time champion Persija Jakarta since April, of the “Bild” newspaper: “It will certainly take a long time to process.”
Doll stated that he had already had “the first conversations” with his players about the tragedy: “You are all understandably very affected. It has nothing to do with football anymore. It all makes you very, very thoughtful.”
At least 174 people died on Saturday evening (local time) in the football arena in Malang (East Java province). Children are also among the victims. 180 people were injured.
After Arema FC’s 3-2 draw with Persebaya FC, 3,000 Arema fans stormed the pitch, police said. Two police officers were killed. In response, the police used tear gas. This caused a panic, resulting in numerous people being trampled to death.
At the time of the accident, Doll was preparing with his team for the game against Persib Bandung. “We heard about the events in Arema in the team hotel,” reported the 56-year-old: “For security reasons, we were immediately driven in armored police cars to our team bus, which was parked 40 kilometers away, and returned to Jakarta under police protection. We’re all happy that we are home now.”
Doll cannot predict what will happen next: “Understandably, the season has been interrupted for an indefinite period of time.”