Why did a World Cup happening 12,000kms away get 12 killed in Bangladesh?

The Fifa World Cup is a global celebration of athletic prowess and cultural exchange. Billions unite to watch twenty-two individuals chase a leather sphere across a meticulously maintained pitch. Yet in Bangladesh, this global spectacle has frequently transformed into a domestic tragedy. During the recent tournament, the fervor surrounding matches played twelve thousand kilometers away resulted in the deaths of twelve Bangladeshi citizens and left over a hundred others injured.

You cannot truly grasp how much risk people in this country are willing to take just to watch a football match unless you visit TSC. Wading through a sea of people, excited young fans somehow climb trees to their highest branches or scale the balconies of four-storey buildings like Spider-Man. Parents even bring their six-month-old babies into this sweltering, suffocating crowd just to watch the game. Blowing long plastic vuvuzelas wrapped with oversized flag stickers, the fans seem determined to make their cheers echo all the way to the United States. 

Sometimes I think that if Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, or Haaland witnessed this spectacle, each of them would declare these fans the real GOATs.

This is not merely overzealous sports fandom. It is a profound failure of collective psychology, social cohesion, and institutional governance. When a distant football match claims lives in a country that has never qualified for the tournament, we must look beyond the immediate violence to understand the deeper societal fractures it exposes.

The Tribal Imperative

The extreme violence witnessed in Bangladesh cannot be fully explained by simple sports rivalry. American social psychologist William B. Swann Jr. and his colleagues developed and extensively researched this concept known as identity fusion, beginning around 2009–2012.

Most people think, "I support Argentina". A fused individual thinks, "Argentina is part of who I am". The distinction between me and my group becomes blurred. The group's emotions become personal emotions. Because the group is experienced as an extension of the self, its outcomes trigger the same emotional responses as personal events. When the team wins, the fan feels proud as though the victory is their own. When the team loses, they experience the defeat as a personal humiliation. Likewise, when the team is insulted, they do not see it as an attack on a distant group but instead feel that they themselves have been insulted.

Threats to the group become threats to the self. Since people are highly motivated to protect their self-concept, a perceived attack on the group can provoke strong defensive reactions. These actions are frequently normalized by those involved as an inherent expression of their passion for the sport. 

Extreme pro-group behaviour becomes more likely. Swann's research found that highly fused individuals report a greater willingness to make costly sacrifices for the group, including risking their safety or well-being. The theory predicts an increased willingness to defend the group, although whether that results in actual violence depends on the social and situational context.

Why does this matter in football fandom?

The difference between an ordinary fan and an identity-fused fan becomes clear when watching an intense match like an Argentina vs Brazil match. An ordinary fan experiences a sense of disappointment following their team's defeat, acknowledging the loss as an external event. In contrast, an identity-fused fan internalizes the outcome, feeling as though they themselves have personally lost. For this type of fan, the boundary between the team and the self dissolves, meaning that any mockery directed toward Argentina is perceived as a direct, personal attack on their own identity.

To be honest, there is no need for a direct Argentina or Brazil match to spark conflict; simply supporting any team that plays against them is enough. For instance, in recent football events, Argentina fans have supported Norway. Furthermore, when Brazil loses, Argentina fans even wear Norway jerseys to celebrate. Similarly, when Argentina played against Egypt, a so-called 'Portugal-Germany-Brazil fans front', which Ekattor Television's sports special segment Khelajog  has dubbed 'Mirtujil', consistently supported Egypt.

It does not end there; religion has also been drawn into the mix. The Mirtujil supporters argue that since Egypt is a Muslim-majority country, the land of the Prophet Musa (Moses), and the team displayed the Palestinian flag to show support for Palestine during matches, Bangladeshis are obligated to support them. Conversely, Messi-loving Argentina fans counter by asking, 'What has the world come to? People are now supporting the land of Firaun (Pharaoh) just for a football match'.

It was the midnight of July 8, tensions surrounding the Argentina-Egypt match resulted in outbreaks of violence at two universities in Bangladesh. At Maulana Bhasani Science and Technology University in Tangail, a clash between groups of students left at least 10 individuals injured, including an assistant proctor, and led to the vandalism of academic buildings. 

Simultaneously, a similar conflict occurred at Jashore University of Science and Technology, where students from two different departments engaged in a fight over the same match. During the altercation in Jashore, several people sustained injuries, and members of the press who attempted to document the event were confronted, attacked, and threatened, with their mobile phones being seized.

This mechanism has deep evolutionary roots. Both American evolutionary psychologist as well as biological anthropologist John Tooby and evolutionary psychologist as well as cognitive scientist Leda Cosmides argues that humans evolved to form coalitions because survival and reproduction depended on cooperation within groups and competition between groups. This directly explains why humans instinctively distinguish between 'us' and 'them'. 

This can also be analyzed using American economist Samuel Bowles and behavioral scientist Herbert Gintis' developed Parochial Altruism. It means loyalty to the in-group and hostility toward out-groups. To extend, it describes the tendency to cooperate with and sacrifice for one's own group while displaying hostility or aggression toward rival groups.

Polish-born British social psychologist Henri Tajfel described this phenomenon as in-group or intergroup bias. According to Tajfel, individuals naturally tend to favor members of their own group over outsiders. It's a tendency that persists even when the groups are formed arbitrarily.

When Bangladeshis paint their buildings in the colors of foreign flags and engage in fierce territorial disputes over which team is superior, they are activating ancient tribal imperatives. The violence that erupts in Jessore or Tangail is not about football tactics. It is a primal assertion of tribalism. The us versus them mentality, amplified by social media, transforms rival fans into existential threats.

This tribal psychology is not unique to Bangladesh, but its consequences here are particularly severe. 

Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, London, and Leader of the Changing Lives Lab Group at the University of Oxford Dr. Martha Newson and her five other colleagues found incidents of violence and antisocial behavior were rarely reported among general Indonesian (9%) or Australian fans (6%) but were significantly higher among their respective ultras groups (37%; 20%). 

Within this demographic (86 from Indonesia and 202 from Australia), a fan's ultra identity serves as the strongest predictor of anti-social behavior. While identity fusion is a significant predictor of violence, the actual impact of this fusion varies considerably depending on the specific cultural and historical context. But, in Bangladesh, tribal bonding operates in a vacuum.

The Sociology of Performative Aggression

Sociologically, the violence serves a specific function within certain Bangladeshi communities. In environments characterized by limited social mobility and economic anxiety, asserting dominance through physical force becomes a powerful form of social capital. Hoisting massive flags on precarious rooftops or organizing violent processions are public performances of power.

When three young men died after being electrocuted while hanging flags in Gaforgaon (Mahin Sheikh), Chittagong (Ramhari Bishnauth), and Manikganj (Faisal), they were not merely victims of electrical accidents. They were casualties of a societal pressure to visibly demonstrate allegiance. Each lost their life to the same impulse.

This performative aggression also intersects with the digital sphere. Facebook dominates social media in Bangladesh and has become the primary battlefield for fan rivalries. Online insults and dehumanizing comments frequently escalate into physical confrontations. The cyberbullying of rival fans creates a raison d'être for real-world violence. What starts as a post on Facebook ends as a knife on the street.

Institutional Failures

The media and educational institutions in Bangladesh bear significant responsibility for this toxic culture. The narrative surrounding the World Cup is often framed through a lens of hyperbolic patriotism, even though the nation is not participating.

At Jahangirnagar University (JU) on June 22 and at Chittagong University (CU) on June 29, disputes over football matches escalated into clashes that left both students and faculty members injured and resulted in the vandalism of academic buildings. 

Following the incident at JU, the university administration expelled a student due to allegations involving clashes and physical assaults. Similarly, at CU, a screening of a match turned violent following a dispute over smoking, resulting in injuries to the Proctor, an Assistant Proctor, and several students. When higher education centers descend into mob violence over a match between two foreign countries, it reveals a catastrophic failure of campus governance.

Furthermore, the normalization of violence against the 'other' in Bangladeshi politics bleeds into sports. When political factions use the World Cup as a pretext for settling scores, as seen in the Sitakunda clashes involving two BNP factions where at least ten, including women, were injured, football becomes a new battleground for old political grievances.

A Global Phenomenon, A Local Failure

Football-related violence is not unique to Bangladesh. The 2022 World Cup saw twenty-three deaths in the country. Globally, tragedies are common. The 1964 riot at a Peru-Argentina match resulted in over three hundred deaths. The 2022 stampede in Indonesia claimed at least one hundred twenty-five lives. During the current tournament, Mexican fans suffocated in a crowd crush that killed three people.

However, the nature of the Bangladeshi tragedy is distinct. Unlike the Indonesia stampede, which was a failure of stadium security, the deaths in Bangladesh occur in the community, in the streets, and on rooftops. This highlights a specific failure in local law enforcement. Japan offers a stark contrast, where fans famously clean up stadiums after matches. Germany employs strict fan segregation and alcohol restrictions to manage high-risk rivalries. In Bangladesh, the absence of such proactive crowd management strategies allows performative aggression to escalate unchecked. The contrast is not merely about cultural disposition. It is about policy.

The Biological Cost

The biological consequences of this fanaticism are equally stark. The intense emotional arousal required to maintain such high levels of tribal loyalty places immense strain on the cardiovascular system. On July 5, the death of a fan named Khokon Karmokar in Taltali, Barguna from a stroke during a football match practice, and the six cardiac deaths during the 2022 tournament, illustrate the physiological toll of unchecked emotional engagement.

In her 1997 review article, 'Physiological consequences of everyday psychosocial stress', Tessa M. Pollard, a professor of the Anthropology of Health at Durham University, demonstrated that the human body is not built to maintain the chronic state of hyper-arousal often required by extreme sports fandom. She explained that when adrenaline and cortisol levels are repeatedly spiked by the abstract outcomes of a distant game, this physiological response becomes toxic to the body.

Pathways to Sanity

To address this recurring epidemic, solutions must be implemented at both the community and institutional levels.

Beyond individual responsibility, long-term solutions require coordinated action from communities and public institutions. Educational institutions should integrate sports literacy into their curricula and facilitate structured, supervised viewing events that promote sportsmanship, mutual respect, and emotional self-control. 

At the same time, local religious and community leaders, who hold considerable de facto authority, should present the World Cup as an opportunity for communal harmony rather than as a zero-sum contest for dominance. Media organisations must also adopt responsible reporting practices by highlighting the human cost of sports-related violence instead of amplifying rivalry.

Institutional reforms are equally necessary to prevent future incidents. The government should develop specialised crowd management protocols for major international sporting events, including designated and secure fan parks where large gatherings can be monitored safely. Such measures would reduce the need for dangerous rooftop celebrations and unauthorised street processions.
 
Universities must enforce strict disciplinary measures against those who participate in violence, while municipal authorities should regulate the display of oversized flags on buildings by enforcing electrical and structural safety standards.

The World Cup is a magnificent event, but it is not worth the price of a single human life. When the passion for a game played twelve thousand kilometers away leads to murder, electrocution, and riots in the streets of Bangladesh, it is a damning indictment of societal values.

By implementing targeted educational, community, and governmental interventions, Bangladesh can transform its World Cup experience from a recurring tragedy into the genuine celebration of human connection that the sport is meant to be. Until then, the roar of the crowd will mask the silent scream of a society failing to control its own blind rage.

A nation with the zeitgeist of the game at its heart should be celebrated for its passion, not condemned for its preventable deaths.

References
[1] Source Material: "উন্মাদনার আড়ালে ট্র্যাজেডি: ১২ হাজার কিলোমিটার দূরের খেলা নিয়ে বাংলাদেশে মৃত্যু ১২" (Tragedy behind madness: 12 deaths in Bangladesh over a game 12,000 km away).

[2] Oxford University Research. "United in defeat: The causes and consequences of identity fusion in football fans." Oxford Research Archive.

[3] White, H., et al. (2024). "Anti-social behavior and soccer identities: different continents, same psychological processes." Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology.

[4] Arafat, S. M. Y., Heun, R., & Hossain, M. S. (2024). "Deaths and clashes induced by rivalry among fans during Fifa World Cup 2022 in Bangladesh." Journal of Injury and Violence Research, 16(2), 135-139.

[5] Fox Sports. "A look at major soccer-related crowd disasters."

[6] WTVC Newschannel 9. "Japanese football fans clean the stadium after each game."

The author is a Master's student in Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. He is a professional journalist serving as the Dhaka University Correspondent for The Daily Observer. He also serves as the Finance Secretary of the Dhaka University Journalists' Association (Duja). Additionally, he is an Ascend Programme Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.