MIAMI GARDENS, Florida – The president of the Colombian football federation and his son were among 27 people arrested during the attack. crowd control problems that broke out on Sunday in the Copa América final between Argentina and Colombiapolice said Monday.
Ramón Jesurún and his son Ramon Jamil Jesurun were detained after the event at Hard Rock Stadium and charged, Miami-Dade Police Detective Andre Martin told the Associated Press.
The two men face three counts of felonious assault on an officer after being accused of fighting with several stadium security guards. Arrest records say the two men tried to enter the field through a tunnel where media gathered after the game. They were stopped by security, and the police report said they “became irate” about the delay. A verbal altercation eventually turned physical with a guard placing an “open palm” on Ramon Jamil Jesurun’s chest to “guide him back” and the young Jesurun grabbing the guard “by the neck” and pulling him to the ground before throwing “two punches that hit” the guard, the report said.
The Colombian soccer federation did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from the AP.
Ramón Jesurún, 71, has been president of the Colombian football federation since 2015 and vice-president of CONMEBOL, the South American football governing body that organizes the Copa América.
In a statement released this Monday, the organization said it regretted the scene in which numerous fans entered the stadium without tickets and “tarnished” the event. O game was delayed for over an hour as authorities worked to control the situation, eventually deciding to allow some fans to enter without going through security checkpoints.
“In this situation, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions of the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, in accordance with the contractual responsibilities established for security operations,” stated the entity. “In addition to the preparations determined in this contract, CONMEBOL recommended to these authorities the procedures proven in events of this magnitude, which were NOT taken into consideration”.
Hard Rock Stadium – host of the 2026 World Cup games – said security was a shared responsibility between stadium staff, the organisation, CONCACAF (the governing body that oversees football in North, Central and South America). Caribbean) and local police.
“More than double the staff” used for a typical event were on site Sunday, a stadium spokesperson said in a news release.
Miami-Dade police said more than 800 officers were at the match. In addition to the arrests, 55 people were expelled, they said.
It was a chaotic scene just hours before the scheduled 8pm start. championship match between the two South American countries: Fans forced their way in, jumped over security fences and pushed past police and stadium attendants, some appearing hysterical as they searched for the people they arrived with.
As a result, there appeared to be significant damage to the site. Videos and images posted on social media showed the broken side rails of an escalator inside the stadium, with shoes, soda cans, reading glasses and articles of clothing left behind. Security fences at a checkpoint at the stadium’s southwest entrance were torn down as thousands of people, including crying children, pushed against them.
The Hard Rock Stadium statement said stadium officials communicated with tournament organizers around 8 p.m. and decided to open the gates to fans with and without tickets who were pushed against the entrance for fear of stampedes and serious injuries. The gates were then closed and many fans with tickets remained outside.
The stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, home to the NFL’s Dolphins, will host seven World Cup matches in 2026, including a quarterfinal and third-place match.
FIFA organizes the World Cup and is a different organization from CONMEBOL. FIFA is an international federation that oversees more than 200 associations affiliated with regional bodies such as CONMEBOL.
Ramón Jesurún is also member of the FIFA Council.
FIFA did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on crowd control issues and how it would prevent similar problems in 2026.
Attorney Steve Adelman, a crowd control expert and vice president of the Event Safety Alliance, said Hard Rock organizers failed to understand that Sunday’s game would bring passionate fans desperate to see their teams, some willing to force their way in. .
“A match between fans of two rival South American nations is about as exciting as it gets,” he said.
Adelman said organizers should have learned from the Euro 2021 final at London’s Wembley Stadium, where English fans without tickets forced their way into their team’s match against Italy. The melee injured 19 police officers and resulted in 53 arrests. In 1989, 97 people were crushed to death in an important English game, when fans forced their way into the stadium.
“Unfortunately, international football matches have been marked by this type of aggressive fan behavior,” said Adelman. “This behavior is not desirable, it is not good, but it is reasonably predictable. … They needed to plan for the audience they were likely to have, not the audience they wanted to have.”
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Associated Press writers Terry Spencer, Astrid Suarez and Gisela Salomon contributed to this report.
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