Football Lovers' Day

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]

Football Lovers' Day
Date16 August 1980 (1980-08-16)
Time14:00 - 16:10 IST
VenueEden Gardens
LocationKolkata, India
Coordinates22°33′52″N 88°20′36″E
TypeStampede
CauseRiot inside stadium
OutcomeSuspension of Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield in 1980
Casualties
16 Deaths
100+ Injured

Events leading up to the disaster

The Kolkata Derby has been an eternal rivalry between the two oldest clubs in Indian football—Mohun Bagan and East Bengal—and has been featured on the list of FIFA's Classic Rivalries. The fanaticism around football in Kolkata in the 1970s was unparalleled and the Bangal-Ghoti rivalry was the pinnacle of football rivalries in Asia, as football became an escape from the political turmoil of the 70s in Kolkata.[4]

East Bengal had the better of their arch-rivals in the better part of the previous decade by winning almost all trophies between 1970 and 1975. Mohun Bagan were fast growing back into their old stature, winning the Triple Crown in 1978. Just a few months back, the two teams had a bitter clash in the 1980 Federation Cup final, which ended 1-1; both were declared joint winners. Both sets of fans were eager to get the bragging rights and the tempers were already high before the kick-off in the ill-fated Kolkata Derby.

Mohun Bagan was led by Compton Dutta while the East Bengal team was led by Satyajit Mitra. The match began in high intensity as Dilip Palit, who started in an un-orthodox right back position for the Red and Golds and committed a rash foul on Bidesh Bose, who was full of trickery on the left flank, in the 11th minute of the game. The referee, Sudhin Chatterjee,[5] didn't produce a card for Dilip Palit, which was a shock for all. After the break, a similar incident happened in the 57th minute and Bidesh Ranjan Bose retaliated, which led the referee to give marching orders to the Mohun Bagan left winger while Dilip Palit was again left unpunished. The referee committed another blunder when he gave Dilip Palit marching orders a few moments later as an act of balancing his previous decision. This started a riot in the stadium among both sets of fans.

Confrontation

Usually, the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan fans are seated in separate galleries so that any kind of fan riots are prevented. However, on that day, both sets of fans were made to sit together in the stands. In the absence of segregation and inadequate police protection in the stands, the riots spread like wildfire and people started running towards exits to save themselves. Young fans jumped off the high stands onto concrete floors to save themselves while many tried to flee through the narrow gates, which led many to fall down. It caused an inevitable stampede that took the lives of 16 football fans.[6][7]

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
East Bengal0–0Mohun Bagan
Attendance: 70,000
Referee: Sudhin Chatterjee (West Bengal)
East Bengal
Mohun Bagan
GKIndia Dilip Paul
RBIndia Dilip PalitRed card 60'
CBIndia Monoranjan Bhattacharya
CBIndia Sudhir Karmakar
LBIndia Satyajit Mitra (c)
CMIndia Mohammed Habibdownward-facing red arrow
MFIndia Samar Bhattacharyya
MFIran Mahmood Khabajidownward-facing red arrow
MFIndia Tapan Das
FWIran Jamshid Nassiri
FWIran Majid Bishkar
Substitutes:
GKIndia Nasir Ahmed
DFIndia Kajal Chatterjeeupward-facing green arrow
MFIndia Harjinder Singhupward-facing green arrow
DFIndia Md. Najib
DFIndia Subhash Roy
MFIndia Amit Guha
MFIndia Somnath Banerjee
MFIndia Latifuddin
MFIndia Sumit Bagchi
FWIndia Tomas Mathuz
FWIndia Bibhas Sarkar
Coach:
India Pradip Kumar Banerjee
GKIndia Sibaji Bannerjee
DFIndia Compton Dutta (c)
DFIndia Subrata Bhattacharya
DFIndia Pradip Chowdhury
DFIndia Shyamal Bannerjee
MFIndia Goutam Sarkar
CMIndia Prasun Banerjee
RWIndia Manas Bhattacharyya
FWIndia Mihir Bose
FWIndia Xavier Payasdownward-facing red arrow
LWIndia Bidesh BoseRed card 57'
Substitutes:
GKIndia Jagadish Ghosh
DFIndia Pratap Ghosh
DFIndia Francis D'Souza
MFIndia Ulaganathanupward-facing green arrow
FWIndia Shyam Thapa
FWIndia Ranjit Mukherjee
MFIndia Kesto Mitra
MFIndia Munish Manna
MFIndia Sanjb Chowdhury
MFIndia Ashok Chakrabarty
Coach:
India Amal Dutta

Match rules

  • 70 minutes.

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
  1. "Shibaji Banerjee signs certificates on 'Football Lovers Day'". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  2. "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.
  3. 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.
  4. "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.
  5. "INDIAN FOOTBALL NEWS- KOLKATAFOOTBALL.COM". Kolkatafootball.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  6. "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.
  7. 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.
  8. "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.
  9. "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.
  10. "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.
  11. 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.
  12. "Manna Dey City's balladeer | KolkataOnWheels". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

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