GAA chiefs blame late arrivals for crowd concerns
Fans raised their concerns yesterday after the start of the Munster senior football championship replay between Cork and Kerry on Saturday night was delayed by almost 20 minutes because of crowd issues.
“Never before have I witnessed such incompetence or stupidity within [and outside] a stadium for the hosting of a major match/event,” said Philip Hosford, who brought his 11-year-old nephew to the game.
“Páirc Uí Chaoimh [in its present format] should never be allowed stage another big match again.
“If this stadium was in any other country it would be shut down by the authorities, both for its decayed ancient edifice and for its incompetent stewarding.”
But Munster Council spokesman Jim Forbes defended the management of the match.
“Where large numbers of people gather, there will be anxieties of course, that’s natural,” he said.
“But the gardaí were monitoring the situation from the CCTV room. I apologies if people were upset, but anything that could be done, was done, to make sure our patrons got in safely,” he said.
Saturday’s incident was an almost exact replica of the situation which unfolded at the stadium in the early stages of the Munster senior hurling championship semi-final clash between Cork and Tipperary on June 8, 2008. Up to 300 fans spilled onto the pitch after pitch-side barriers had to be opened to prevent a potentially serious crush after the late arrival of almost 23,000 fans.
Mr Forbes said a similar situation developed last Saturday.
Mr Hosford, who arrived outside the stadium almost an hour before throw-in, rejected this claim and said he saw problems when he arrived.
He said some stewards appeared overwhelmed by the crowds and called for backup. He said as he made his way between the uncovered stand and the stream, there was barely room to move.
He described it as a “highly dangerous environment” and said he would be reluctant to bring a young person to the stadium again.
He eventually got into the stadium at 4.50pm only to find the tunnel was jammed and dangerously over-crowded. He said controls around seat allocation were also lacking and that a garda had to step in to resolve one row.
Mr Forbes said while organisers expected 20,000 fans, they were will equipped to cater for the attendance of 30,000
About 250 stewards, who receive ongoing training in crowd control, were on duty as all the stadium’s 40 turnstiles opened at about 3.45pm.
Gardaí ordered a large gate on the Showgrounds side to be opened to cater for the last minutes rush at 4.45pm, he said.
“I was on duty on it myself. There were two gardaí on duty there, and there was no hassle. People were in the best of form,” Mr Forbes said.
That gate was cleared at 5.10pm, but Mr Forbes said he could still see people buying match tickets at 5.25pm. He also suggested that Saturdays are bad days to stage matches.
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