Prep questioned for chaotic Copa final

BREAKDOWN: International soccer fans crash to the ground after bursting through the gates for the 2024 Copa America final match at Hard Rock Stadium. (Getty Images)

FIFA should have intervened

What was supposed to be a celebration to conclude the Copa America soccer tournament at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday became a security nightmare with unruly fans, many without tickets, forcing their way into the NFL facility by storming the gates, climbing on top of the box office roof to reach a pedestrian ramp, and most shockingly, crawling into the building’s ventilation system.

No one really knows where those particular folks ended up while exploring the inner workings of the HVAC labyrinth, but there’s plenty of blame to be shared for the mayhem, according to Doug Logan, Major League Soccer’s first commissioner, ex-arena manager and former head of OCESA, a Hispanic promoter in Mexico City. Logan was involved in roughly 20 international soccer competitions over his lengthy career.

“Enough so, that I remember getting hit with a balloon full of urine in El Salvador,” he said.

The Miami Dolphins, who run the stadium, and CONMEBOL, South American soccer’s governing body and the event promoter, traded news releases pointing the finger at each other for the fiasco.

They’re both lucky nobody was killed, Logan said.

The chaotic scene outside the stadium delayed the championship match between Argentina and Colombia by more than 80 minutes as venue security and Miami-Dade Police Department officers attempted to regain control of the situation.

Hard Rock Stadium officials stated that unruly fans fought with law enforcement, broke down walls and barricades and vandalized the stadium, “causing significant damage to the property.” Photos of an escalator destroyed with shattered glass surfaced on social media the night of the match. Children were seen visibly crying outside the venue, and there were reports of people fainting in the South Florida heat.

Law enforcement and venue staff opened the stadium gates to relieve pressure and avoid a prolonged crowd crush, allowing hundreds of fans without a ticket into the building and at least one small dog in a video that went viral across social media. Hard Rock Stadium was at capacity so quickly that the gates were shut soon after, leaving many fans with tickets, many of which went for thousands of dollars on the secondary market, locked out.

Tom Garfinkel, vice chairman, CEO and president of the Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, did not respond to a direct message sent by VenuesNow through Twitter.

“We understand there are disappointed ticket holders who were not able to enter the stadium after the perimeter was closed, and we will work in partnership with CONMEBOL to address those individual concerns,” Hard Rock Stadium said in a statement. “Ultimately, there is nothing more important than the health and safety of all guests and staff, and that will always remain our priority.”

Logan placed the blame on everyone involved in the event for not anticipating the problem at the final, especially after a Copa America semifinal, where the Uruguayan players brawled with fans in the stands of Bank of America Stadium after falling to Colombia, 1-0, before 70,644 fans, excluding those who unfortunately fell victim of counterfeit ticket scams on the street.

“Charlotte should have been a red flag about the fervor of, in this case, Colombian fans, who provoked the intrusion by Uruguayan players to protect their families,” he said. “It also sent a signal that crowd management was extraordinarily lax. These tournaments are a nightmare because of the multiple interests and diffusion of accountability. Everyone wants to take a bow when things are going right. No one wants to own the problems.”

FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, is gearing up for 2026 World Cup at stadiums across North America, including seven matches at Hard Rock Stadium, and should take some responsibility for the dangerous scenario, even though it was not their event, Logan said.

“FIFA had a ton of observers to judge World Cup preparations,” he said. “They could and should have intervened. These guys (CONMEBOL) have no operating standards. Most of the ‘suits’ in attendance were there to brag back home that they hugged the winning players and hung out with Shakira backstage.”

Miami-Dade Police Department officials said there were more than 800 law enforcement officers at the event. They arrested 27 individuals, one of whom was Colombian Football Federation President Ramon Jesurun, and 55 were ejected. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Chief Public Safety Officer James Reyes released a joint statement during the event expressing “outrage” over CONMEBOL’S handling of the final match.

“Let’s be clear: This situation should have never taken place and cannot happen again. We will work with stadium leadership to ensure that a full review of tonight’s events takes place immediately to evaluate the full chain of events, in order to put in place needed protocols and policies for all future games,” Levine Cava and Reyes said.

CONMEBOL addressed the incident on Monday, saying they “regret that the acts of violence caused by malicious individuals have tarnished a final that was ready to be a great sports celebration.”

The South American governing body placed the blame on the venue.

“In this situation, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions made by the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, according to the contractual responsibilities established for security operations. 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 officials clapped back at CONMEBOL on Tuesday and said they worked with the South American entity, CONCACAF — the governing body for international teams from North and Central American and the Caribbean that served as a partner — and local law enforcement.

“The agencies met regularly, including daily security briefings throughout the month-long tournament. Hard Rock Stadium implemented, and in many cases, exceeded CONMEBOL’s security recommendations throughout the tournament final,” stadium officials said.

The U.S. took on hosting duties after Ecuador declined to do so. CONMEBOL and CONCACAF formed a partnership in 2023 to strengthen the sport in their respective countries, and it was only announced late last year that the tournament would be held in the U.S., which previously hosted the competition in 2016.

Fourteen venues, mostly comprising NFL stadiums, accepted the task of holding Copa America matches, but some stadiums found it difficult to work with CONMEBOL and said the organization was ill-prepared for its own tournament, opting not to employ more security.

Everyone involved seems to have underestimated the number of fans and the behavior of the attendees the competition would attract. Copa América saw record numbers in attendance and viewership back in 2016 when its Centenario (100th anniversary) competition was held in the States, and this year’s tournament was on pace to best those figures following the first round of games.

Big league security consultant Dan Donovan said his industry colleagues have told him that CONMEBOL is known for cutting corners financially.

Sources said those shortcuts included CONMEBOL refusing to pay for additional security at Copa matches as requested by stadium managers. At one NFL venue, CONMEBOL botched the relatively simple process of distributing media credentials on site, sources said.

“The stadium isn’t the promoter, so the promoter has to make the decision on this additional expenditure,” Donovan said. “If I’m going to bring all this staff in three to four hours early, there’s a cost to doing that, and someone has to make a decision on (on who pays for) that cost.”

For Donovan, such a decision is an easy one.

“Safety first, so you do it, but I don’t know the dynamics and politics between the stadium and the entity promoting the event,” he said. “That’s where a lot of the challenge comes in.”

Donovan said best practices for international soccer call for establishing a soft outer perimeter away from the stadium to check for tickets, staffed with experienced personnel. For the Super Bowl, the NFL, for example, builds the first security checkpoint 300 yards from the host venue. In Latin America, multiple checkpoints are typically installed for soccer competitions to filter out fans not holding event tickets, Yahoo Sports reported.

Tariq Butt, who previously worked with FIFA on World Cup, echoed Donovan’s assessment and was stunned to see what had occurred at Hard Rock Stadium “because there have been many opportunities to learn from similar experiences that have recently taken place around the world.”

“We call it safety and schedule; it’s the onion layer effect,” said Butt, vice president of international strategic business services for VenuesNow parent company Oak View Group. “You have to create space that allows you to eject and reject people. I just saw them at critical mass at the end where you couldn’t get people in, let alone try and get the wrong people out.”

Though no major injuries or casualties were reported, the Copa América fiasco raises concerns over future soccer events in the U.S., including the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 and the sport’s biggest stage, World Cup, the following year.

Unlike CONMEBOL, FIFA requires host nations to adhere to strict security policies that are planned years in advance. Butt, who has a background in policing, said he worked training Qatar personnel for the 2022 World Cup more than three years before the tournament, studying every single detail, from the venue to the teams to the fans who follow them.

An international soccer match, especially a final, is much different from an NFL game or a concert, Butt said, and it requires extra prep, such as performing live play exercises with all agencies to not only get to know each other but to “test plans and responses to a wide range of scenarios.”

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, isn’t immune to incidents like the one that occurred at Hard Rock Stadium. The Euro 2020 final played in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic was also marred by unruly fans who invaded Wembley Stadium gates in London, and the organization also encountered issues with recent Champions League finals.

With two years to go until World Cup, host nations Mexico, the U.S. and Canada still have time to learn this year’s Copa America and ensure nothing that occurred in South Florida happens again.

Hard Rock Stadium is one of 11 American venues hosting World Cup matches in 2026, and G.B. Jones is chief and safety security officer for what is to be the largest edition of the tournament, which will now feature 16 more teams for a total of 48 international squads. Jones, a former FBI agent and Minnesota state trooper, did not return an email for comment. World Cup officials responded and declined to comment on the situation.

“I’m sure (Hard Rock Stadium General Manager) Todd Boyan is doing a deep dive into what happened,” Donovan said. “I’ve been in sessions where G.B. Jones talks about preparing for this international crowd that’s going to come for the Gold Cup, Copa and ultimately World Cup. He’s going around educating stadium managers, telling them this isn’t your typical NFL crowd coming.”

Donovan said, “We have to be prepared for the international crowd. They think it’s fine to bring players into the stadium (with the crowds) and all the stuff that we cringe at. My question is, what intel did you have that you might have this kind of problem?”

Whatever the problem is, FIFA and the venues they’re working with have 23 months to develop appropriate security protocols.

Editor’s Note: VenuesNow’s Don Muret contributed to this story.