Chaos in the Copa América final: game delayed, fans trapped outside after gates were broken into, police response

Chaos consumed the final hours of the Copa América before kick-off in Miami, where thousands of fans were trapped outside the Hard Rock Stadium past the gates as security tried, and apparently failed, to manage the flow of spectators to Sunday’s game between Argentina and Colombia.

From 7:30 pm, 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of 8 pm, all stadium gates were closed. Organizers announced that kickoff has been postponed until at least 8:30 am.

Fans, however, were suffering. The children would be crying. Many people supposedly passed out. Several men were bloodied by the police.

Chaos apparently began when some supposedly fans without tickets — it’s unclear how many — breached at least one main entrance gate. They ran towards the stadium lobby, with police and security chasing them.

The breach provoked a forceful police response, which appeared to exacerbate the chaos.

Authorities responded by closing the breached gate and eventually all stadium gates with less than an hour until kickoff.

This left many fans with tickets – including, supposedlyfamily members of players – unable to enter and trapped in a mass of peoplesweating in the sweltering heat and humidity of South Florida.

Before the total closure, for a brief period, they let fans in one by one, with a dozen police officers lined up at the entrance.

Multiple journalists at the scene said they and others had been instructed by police to stop filming the chaos, which will raise all sorts of critical questions about the preparation of CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation responsible for the Copa América, and local organizers in Miami .

The videos began to spread shortly after the gates opened at 5pm local time.

The Miami-Dade Police Department later said in a statement that there were “several incidents prior to gates opening” that “were the result of unruly behavior by fans attempting to access the stadium.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.