Colombian Football Federation President, Son Among 27 Arrested in Copa America Final Chaos

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The president of Colombia’s soccer federation and his son were among 27 people arrested during a Crowd control issues Which broke out on Sunday in the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombiapolice said Monday.

Miami-Dade Police Detective Andre Martin told The Associated Press that Ramon Jessoron and his son Ramon Jamil Jessoron were arrested after the event at Hard Rock Stadium and charged.

The two men face three counts of assaulting an official after they were accused of fighting multiple security guards at the stadium. Arrest records say the two men tried to enter the stadium through a tunnel where media had gathered after the game. Security stopped them, and the police report says they were “angry” about the delay. The verbal altercation eventually turned physical, with one guard placing “his open palm” on Ramon Jamil Jesuron’s chest to “sway him back” and the younger Jesuron grabbing the guard “around the neck” and pulling him to the ground before delivering “two impactful punches” to the guard, the report says. The two men were taken into custody after midnight.

The Colombian Football Federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Monday.

Ramon Jesuron, 71, has been president of the Colombian Football Federation since 2015 and is vice-president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), the governing body for South American football which organises the Copa America.

In a statement on Monday, the organization said it regretted the scene in which countless fans entered the stadium without tickets and “distorted” the event. The match was delayed for more than an hour. While the authorities worked to control the situation, they eventually decided to allow some fans to enter without passing through security checkpoints.

“In this case, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions taken by the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, in accordance with the contractual responsibilities defined for security operations,” CONMEBOL said in a statement. “In addition to the preparations specified in this contract, CONMEBOL recommended to these authorities measures that have proven effective in events of this magnitude, which were not taken into account.”

Hard Rock Stadium, which will host matches at the 2026 World Cup, said security is a shared responsibility between stadium officials, the organization, CONCACAF (the governing body that oversees soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean) and local police.

“More than double the number of staff” needed for a typical event were on site on Sunday, a stadium spokesperson said in a news release.

Miami-Dade Police said more than 800 law enforcement officers were at the game. In addition to the arrests, 55 people were ejected, they said.

The scene was chaotic just hours before the scheduled 8 p.m. start of the match. Championship match between the two countries from South AmericaFans stormed the pitch, jumped over security barriers and ran past police and stadium staff, some appearing hysterical as they searched for the people they had arrived with.

The damage appeared to be extensive. Videos and photos posted on social media showed the handrails of an escalator inside the stadium shattered, with shoes, soda cans, reading glasses and clothing left behind. A security handrail at a checkpoint at the stadium’s southwest entrance was also bent when thousands of people, including crying children, pushed it.

A statement from Hard Rock Stadium said stadium officials contacted tournament organizers around 8 p.m. and decided to open the gates to ticketed and non-ticketed fans who had rushed toward the entrance for fear of a stampede and serious injury. The gates were then closed, leaving many ticketed fans outside.

The stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, home of the NFL’s Dolphins, is set to host seven World Cup matches in 2026, including a quarter-final and third-place match.

The World Cup is organized by FIFA, a different organization from CONMEBOL. FIFA is an international federation that oversees more than 200 associations affiliated with regional bodies such as CONMEBOL.

Ramon Jesuron is also Member of the FIFA Council.

FIFA did not immediately respond Monday to The Associated Press’s request for comment on crowd control issues and how it would prevent similar problems in 2026.

Hard Rock Stadium organizers failed to understand that Sunday’s game would bring in enthusiastic fans desperate to see their teams, some of whom were willing to storm the field, said attorney Steve Adelman, a crowd control expert and vice president of the Event Safety Coalition.

“The match between fans of two rival South American teams is a match full of passion and excitement,” he said.

Adelman said organisers should have learned from the Euro 2021 final at London’s Wembley Stadium, where England fans without tickets stormed the pitch during their team’s match with Italy. The brawl left 19 police officers injured and 53 people arrested. In 1989, 97 people were killed at a major English match when fans stormed the stadium.

“It’s unfortunate that international football matches have been marked by this kind of aggressive behaviour from fans,” Adelman said. “It’s unwelcome, it’s not good, but it’s reasonably expected… They should have planned for the crowds they were likely to have, not the crowds they wished for.”

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Associated Press writers Terry Spencer, Astrid Suarez and Gisela Salomon contributed to this report.

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