The pre-match crowd and security insanity ahead of Sunday night’s Copa América final at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium caused concerns for many who had friends and family there. One of those was Stu Holden, the match analyst for the Fox broadcast. On Monday morning, in the wake of Argentina’s win over Colombia in that match, Holden shared a thread from his wife Karalyn Holden (née West) on her experience with their daughter in the crush of people trying to get in, and asked for accountability from those overseeing the situation:
My family have traveled around the World to see games in countries I’ve either played or worked in. Last night was the first time I’ve been genuinely concerned for their safety… and it was in our country. I hope there will be accountability for those that were in charge. https://t.co/xqL5qUkagy
— Stu Holden (@stuholden) July 15, 2024
Here’s that full thread from Karalyn Holden about those crowd issues, which is quite frightening:
(2) against each other, I started to get an awful feeling. I texted @stuholden who was in the stadium, if he knew what was going on bc people were panicking. They kept pushing into my kid, trying to force their way 2 the front of the gate, which was still closed. Stu sent this: pic.twitter.com/UMtgvydG3n
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
(4) and started to go down- I caught her as she passed out, and landed on the ground. She was with someone in a wheelchair chair & couldn’t help her, I had her on my lap, and was dumping the last of Kennas water on her to cool her down. No one else helped us. Her mom (I assume)
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
(6) this all happened in the first 15 min of us in this crowd. We stood there for another 40 min, trying to figure out a solution with Stu via text, who was also about to go live on air. I stayed put for fear of the masses rushing the gates until I got an update. I saw that Euros
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
(8) I am so angry with Conmebol for putting everyone in danger. There should have been a perimeter set up wayyyy outside the stadium. Take notes from FIFA. I’m thankful for the security guards who helped get us out of there. I know others weren’t as fortunate.
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
(10) also, the gate we waited an hr out was bumrushed immediately as we were escorted out of there, people shoving guards out of the way and breaking the barricades in front of us. I can’t help but think about how we were almost caught in that and how glad I am I stayed put.
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
(11) sooo if the internet can do its thing, I would love to find these guys who helped me barricade Kenna and keep her safe for an hr – they’re from Wyoming, and said this was their first “huge game” like this. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 thank you thank you, I hope they ended up having fun! pic.twitter.com/shNwkN3gfI
— Karalyn Holden (@KaralynWest) July 15, 2024
As Holden notes there, while this match (and tournament) was in the U.S., it was overseen by South American soccer confederation CONMEBOL rather than U.S. Soccer or North American confederation CONCACAF. And this is far from the first criticism for CONMEBOL’s handling of this tournament.
Indeed, Sunday was far from the first absurdity involving fans and lackluster security preparations during this tournament, or from the first time those security preparations were blasted. After Colombia’s semifinal win over Uruguay Wednesday, Fox cameras captured Uruguayan players going into the stands to try and defend their families from Colombian fans and saying there was no security.
That brawl led to Uruguay manager Marcelo Bielsa calling the CONMEBOL organizers a “plague of liars” and saying “The only thing I can tell you is that the players reacted the same way any human being would. If you see what happened happen and there’s [no other process to escape] and they are attacking their girlfriends, their mothers, a baby, their wives, their mothers — what would you do?”
In that press conference, Bielsa also went off on a number of other issues around the tournament, Those included playing surfaces and training grounds. And Jonathan Tannenwald of The Philadelphia Inquirer correctly noted that Bielsa’s complaints were all about CONMEBOL-overseen matters around the tournament:
All three items are Conmebol’s – grass rules, choices of training grounds, and spending on gameday operations: https://t.co/YVdkaWB0Xm
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) July 12, 2024
There have been many international soccer matches organized in the U.S. with far fewer problems. But the issues Sunday have some officials at 2026 FIFA World Cup host cities, including Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas, vowing they’ll learn from what went wrong at the Copa América final:
Arrowhead Stadium security—provided by KCPD, the Jackson County Sheriff, assisting agencies, and private security—don’t play.
All will study the recent events at the match at Hard Rock Stadium in Florida. We’ll be ready for a safe, steady, and secure visitor experience.
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) July 15, 2024
And there are already FIFA-required procedures in those bid books, including multi-tiered security, that go well beyond what was provided at the Copa América final. So this may not wind up being a World Cup issue. But it certainly was an issue for this tournament, and cast a pall over an otherwise-thrilling event that drew incredible ratings for Fox (whose 2021 decision to pick up the English-language U.S. rights for many CONMEBOL events looks very good in retrospect).
[Stu Holden on X/Twitter]
