MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The president of the Colombian Soccer Federation and his son were among 27 people arrested during the crowd control problems which broke out on Sunday during the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombiapolice reported on Monday.
Ramón Jesurún and his son Ramon Jamil Jesurun were arrested and charged after the event at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami-Dade Police Detective Andre Martin told The Associated Press.
Both men face three counts of assault on an official after they were accused of attacking multiple stadium security guards. According to arrest reports, both men attempted to enter the field through a tunnel where media was gathering after the game. They were stopped by security, and the police report said they became “enraged” by the delay. A verbal altercation eventually turned physical, with a guard placing an “open palm” on Ramon Jamil Jesurun’s chest to “guide him back” and the younger Jesurun grabbing the guard “around 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 Colombian Football Federation did not respond to a request for comment from AP on Monday.
Ramón Jesurún, 71, has been president of the Colombian Football Federation since 2015 and vice-president of CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation that organizes the Copa America tournament.
In a statement released Monday, the organization said it regretted the scene in which numerous fans entered the stadium without tickets and “tarnished” the event. game was delayed for over an hour While authorities tried to get the situation under control, they eventually decided to let some fans in without having to go through security checks.
“In this situation, CONMEBOL was subject to the decisions taken by the Hard Rock Stadium authorities, according to the contractual responsibilities established for security operations,” the organization said. “In addition to the preparations established in this contract, CONMEBOL advised these authorities of the procedures proven in events of this magnitude, which were NOT taken into account.”
Hard Rock Stadium, the site of the 2026 World Cup matches, said security is a shared responsibility between stadium officials, the organization, CONCACAF (the umbrella organization that oversees soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean) and local police.
“More than double the number of staff” deployed for a typical event were on site Sunday, a stadium spokesperson said in a press release.
According to Miami-Dade police, more than 800 officers were at the game. In addition to the arrests, 55 people were turned away, they said.
It was a chaotic scene just hours before the scheduled start of the championship match between the two South American countries:Fans pushed their way inside, jumping over security barriers and running past police and stadium staff. Some appeared hysterical as they searched for the people they had arrived with.
There appeared to be significant damage to the venue. Videos and images posted on social media showed the side railings of an escalator inside the stadium smashed, with shoes, soda cans, reading glasses and items of clothing left behind. Security barriers at a checkpoint near the southwestern entrance to the stadium were bent as thousands of people, including crying children, pushed against them.
The Hard Rock Stadium press release stated that stadium officials contacted tournament organizers at approximately 8 p.m. and decided to open the gates to both ticket holders and non-ticket holders who were being pushed against the entrance due to fears of stampedes and serious injuries. The gates were then closed, leaving many ticket holders outside.
The stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, home to the NFL’s Dolphins, will host seven World Cup matches 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 member associations under regional bodies such as CONMEBOL.
Ramón Jesurún is also a member of the FIFA Council.
FIFA did not respond Monday to AP’s request for comment on the crowd control issues and how similar problems would be prevented 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 enthusiastic fans eager to see their teams, some even willing to push their way inside.
“A match between fans of two rival South American countries is about the most passionate you can get,” he said.
Adelman said organizers should have learned from the 2021 European Championship final at Wembley Stadium in London, where ticketless English fans forced their way into their team’s match against Italy. The brawl left 19 police officers injured and 53 people arrested. In 1989, 97 people were crushed to death at a major English match when fans forced their way into the stadium.
“Unfortunately, international soccer matches are characterized by this kind of aggressive fan behavior,” Adelman said. “This behavior is not desirable, it is not right, but it is reasonably foreseeable. … They had to plan for 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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