For instance, after a brawl involving these fans in February 2020, the result was damage totaling 250 million rupiah ($18,000). Indeed, there have been clashes between fans of both clubs that were destructive. The antagonistic split between these two neighbouring but rival residents reached the point that the mutual hostility infiltrated their football, making it a boiling pot on the verge of tipping over. On the other hand, Malang people regard Surabaya residents as erratic and unreliable. In the 1980s, there was a perception in Surabaya that the inhabitants of Malang did not know how to conduct themselves because they had caused trouble in other people’s cities, specifically by making noise and upsetting the populace of Surabaya with their actions and remarks. It dates to the rivalry between Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city and the locale of the Persebaya Surabaya club, and Malang, about two hours’ drive away, which is home to Arema FC.īoth cities have been making the case to being the best city in East Java and this has been fraught with such animosity that the locals have become incompatible with one another. The very concrete basis for this trepidation was grounded on a history of tensions that have their origins outside football itself. The October 1 fixture was billed for a late kickoff but so concerning was the threat of violence that the football association of the domestic League mulled the decision to shift it to a daytime match to minimise the dangers that a breakdown of law and order posed for the players, match officials, fans, residents and police, as well. It was concerning to authorities, given the rivalry and the precedence of bad blood that existed between the two clubs: Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya. There was an indication that violence could erupt during the game from the onset. That was how it came to be that no fewer than 131 people died in the early hours of Sunday last week in the post-match stampede at the venue of a domestic game between local rivals in Indonesia to become one of the deadliest stadium fatalities in history. When combined with irresponsible policing, the illegal use of tear gas in confined spaces as these stadiums often aren and the violent employment of batons in a failed attempt at crowd control, all the ingredients for disaster are at hand.

Easily explained as fan exuberance in its more positive light of the exhilaration, excitement and elation, when winning, or pain, agony and tears, when losing, it always carries a tendency to go to extremes with a trail of acts of violence, destruction, blood and deaths in its wake.

Unrestrained fanaticism and unbridled passion are two explosive ingredients that often metamorphose into acts of brigandage and violence when an adrenaline-filled game like football is involved and when an unruly set of fans are on rampage.

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