Football Lovers' Day
Date | 16 August 1980 |
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Time | 14:00 - 16:10 IST |
Venue | Eden Gardens |
Location | Kolkata, India |
Coordinates | 22°33′52″N 88°20′36″E / 22.56444°N 88.34333°E |
Type | Stampede |
Cause | Riot inside stadium |
Outcome | Suspension of Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield in 1980 |
Casualties | |
16 Deaths | |
100+ Injured |
Football Lovers' Day[1] is observed in memorial to be the most tragic day in Indian football history,[2] when 16 football fans died due to a stampede and riot inside the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on 16 August 1980 on the occasion of a Kolkata Derby match in the Calcutta Football League.[3]
Events leading up to the disaster
The
Confrontation
Usually, the
The match
The players and the officials did not have any idea of what was happening in the stands. The game was stopped for few moments after the double red cards and the game went on where both teams played with 10 men and the game finished at 0-0.
Match Details
Mohun Bagan | ||
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East Bengal
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Mohun Bagan
|
|
|
Match rules
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Aftermath of the disaster
The bodies of the injured were taken over to the nearby hospitals and people flocked over at the various locations to identify their missing kin. The police report claimed that 16 fans were dead and many were left injured. All the matches for the rest of the season were cancelled and both the teams were heavily fined.
Impact on people
This tragedy sent the entire sports fraternity and the Bengali community into shock and people who were regulars to the Kolkata Maidan suddenly disappeared on the aftermath of the disaster. The football-crazy Bengali was nowhere to be seen, as they faced stiff resistance from their families to attend the next set of matches. People who went to the matches every week now either snapped their ties from the Kolkata Maidan or attended the games with fear in their minds. The fanaticism in Kolkata regarding the Beautiful Game was gone and took nearly two decades to recover, until when the Salt Lake Stadium saw a record-breaking attendance of 131,000 in the 1997 Federation Cup.
Commemorations
The Indian Football Association observes Football Lovers' Day[8][9] as a memorial to the 16 Football Fans who died on 16 August 1980. The first memorial, held in 1981, saw a total number of 1203 people donating blood.
The IFA and other District Associations observe the Football Lovers' Day every year on 16 August and the players who were part of the ill-fated match are present at the event and hand over signed certificates to the blood donors.[10][11]
The legendary singer Manna Dey sang a song, Khela football khela, composed by Suparnakanti Ghosh, to pay homage to those unfortunate souls who lost their lives on that ill-fated day.[12]
The 16 fans
The names of the 16 football lovers who died on that day:[2]
- Kartik Maity
- Uttam Chowle
- Samir Das
- Aloke Das
- Sanat Basu
- Nabin Nashkar
- Kalyan Samanta
- Ashim Chatterjee
- Robin Adak
- Kartik Maji
- Dhananjoy Das
- Shyamal Biswas
- Madam Mohan Bagli
- Prashanta Dutta
- Himangshu Sekhar Das
- Bishwajit Kar
References
- ^ "Shibaji Banerjee signs certificates on 'Football Lovers Day'". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ a b "Revisiting 16th August, 1980: The darkest day in the history of Indian Football as 16 died in Eden Gardens Debacle - Goal.com". Goal.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Das, Rana (16 August 2016). "The Blackest Day Of Calcutta Maidan Through My Eyes". English.kolkata24x7.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "India in '70s: A turbulent and testing decade than any other in the country's history". Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ "INDIAN FOOTBALL NEWS- KOLKATAFOOTBALL.COM". Kolkatafootball.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "Top 5 cases of crowd violence in Indian Footballing history". Sportskeeda.com. 9 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Mitra, Sumit (15 September 1980). "Stampede, rioting during East Bengal match in Kolkata". India Today. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "32nd FOOTBALL LOVERS DAY WILL OBSERVE BY IFA ON 16TH AUGUST". Kolkata Football. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
- ^ "IFA to observe 36th Football Lovers' Day on Tuesday – Sports India Live". Sportsindialive.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "Kolkatafootball.com-indian Football News, pic, stats, article - Indian Football News 2015". Kolkatafootball.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Das Sharma, Amitabha (16 August 2020). "Kolkata football tragedy: Fans donate blood to mark 40th anniversary". Sportstar. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "Manna Dey City's balladeer | KolkataOnWheels". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
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