MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The president of Colombia’s soccer federation and his son are among 27 people arrested in the attack crowd control issues which broke out on Sunday during the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombiapolice said Monday.
Ramon Jesurun and his son Ramon Jamil Jesurun were arrested after the event at Hard Rock Stadium and charged, Miami-Dade police Detective Andre Martin told The Associated Press.
The two men are charged with three counts of battery on an official after they were accused of confronting several stadium security officers. Arrest records indicate the two men attempted to enter the field through a tunnel where media were gathering after the game. They were stopped by security and the police report said they “became irate” over the delay. A verbal altercation eventually turned physical, with one guard placing an “open palm” on Ramon Jamil Jesurun’s chest to “guide him back” and the younger Jesurun grabbing the guard “by the neck” and pulling him to the ground before throwing “two punches that struck” the guard, the report said. The two men were taken into custody after midnight.
The federation said in a statement Tuesday that stadium security forces prevented most members of the Colombian delegation from reaching the field for the awards ceremony. The federation said Jesurún’s father stepped forward to intervene after his son was restrained by security officers.
“As the governing body of Colombian football, we regret what happened and apologize to the organizers, the host country and those affected,” the statement said in Spanish. “For his part, President Jesurún regrets the events, which should never have happened and are the result of his fatherly instinct to protect his son and his family.”
Ramón Jesurún, 71, has been president of the Colombian football federation since 2015 and vice-president of CONMEBOL, the South American football governing body that organizes the Copa America tournament.
In a separate statement, the organization said it regretted the scene in which countless fans entered the stadium without tickets and “tarnished” the event. The match was delayed by more than an hour as authorities struggled to control the situation, eventually deciding to let some fans in without going through security checkpoints.
“In this situation, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions taken by the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, in accordance with the contractual responsibilities established for security operations,” the organization said. “In addition to the preparations determined in this contract, CONMEBOL recommended to these authorities the procedures proven in events of this magnitude, which were NOT taken into account.”
Hard Rock Stadium, the site of the 2026 World Cup, said security was a shared responsibility between stadium officials, the organization, CONCACAF (the governing body that oversees soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean) and local police.
“More than double the staff” used for a typical event was on site Sunday, a stadium spokesperson said in a news release.
Miami-Dade police said more than 800 law enforcement officers were present at the game. In addition to the arrests, 55 people were ejected, they added.
It was a chaotic scene just hours before the match was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. championship match between the two South American countries:The fans forced their way in, jumping over security barriers and pushing past police and stadium guards, some appearing hysterical as they searched for the people they had arrived with.
The damage appeared to be extensive. Videos and images posted on social media showed the side railings of an escalator inside the stadium broken, with shoes, soda cans, reading glasses and clothing strewn about. Security barriers at a checkpoint at the stadium’s southwest entrance were bent as thousands of people, including crying children, pushed past them.
The Hard Rock Stadium statement said stadium officials contacted tournament organizers around 8 p.m. and decided to open the gates to ticketed and non-ticketed fans who rushed to the entrance for fear of stampedes and serious injuries. The gates were then closed and many ticketed fans remained outside.
The stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, home to the NFL’s Dolphins, will host seven World Cup games in 2026, including a quarterfinal and a third-place match.
FIFA organizes the World Cup and is a separate organization from CONMEBOL. FIFA is an international federation that oversees more than 200 associations affiliated with regional bodies like CONMEBOL.
Ramon Jesurun is also member of the FIFA Council.
FIFA did not immediately respond Monday to AP’s request for comment on the crowd control issues and how it would prevent similar problems in 2026.
Attorney Steve Adelman, a crowd control expert and vice president of the Event Safety Alliance, said Hard Rock organizers failed to understand that Sunday’s game would draw passionate fans, desperate to see their teams, some willing to force their way in.
“A match between fans of two rival South American nations is about as passionate as it gets,” he said.
Adelman said organisers should have learned from the 2021 European Championship final at London’s Wembley Stadium, where ticketless England fans forced their way into their team’s match against Italy. The brawl left 19 police officers injured and 53 arrested.
“Unfortunately, international football matches have been marred by this type of aggressive fan behavior,” Adelman said. “This behavior is neither desirable nor good, but it is reasonably predictable. … They had to anticipate the crowd they were likely to have, not the crowd they wanted to have.”
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Associated Press journalists Terry Spencer, Astrid Suarez and Gisela Salomon contributed to this report.
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