FIFA to offer consolation to Ivory Coast stadium victims

More than a year after the tragedy of the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, world  football's governing body FIFA has announced support for the wounded and families of the victims.

At a ceremony to be jointly organised by the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) and FIFA’s development bureau in Abidjan, several consolatory gifts will be presented to the families of those who died at the stadium and to those who survived with terrible injuries.

According to the co-ordinator of the FIF development bureau in Cote D’Ivoire, Mr. Sampon Kablan, the ceremony will be held at the FIFA headquarters on August 3 at 11:00 GMT.

On March 29, 2009, during an African Nations Cup/World Cup qualifying match at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium between Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi, 20 people were killed and 135 scarred for life while hundreds of fans stampeded through the stadium’s gate to see the encounter, causing the collapse of an adjoining brick fence eight feet high.

FIFA had sanctioned the Ivorian government and the FIF for improper security measures at the stadium, and a local inquiry had revealed that match assistants and security officials sold parallel game tickets which swelled the attendance. Scores of indicted men had been sentenced to jail.

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