Human rights activists have calculated how many children in Russia died due to falling football goals

At least 19 children have died in Russia over the past five years due to falling football goals at schools and playgrounds. This is stated in the report of the human rights project Travmpunkt. The authors of the report are sure that the reason is the lack of mandatory certification of the production and operation of such sports equipment. In the “People’s Front” they also talk about the lack of control by the relevant departments and clearly defined requirements for servicing football goals. The Office of the Ombudsman for Children proposes to write a clear algorithm for checking the safety of sports grounds, and before that, control by parents and public figures.

Lawyers of the Travmpunkt human rights project have prepared a report (available to Kommersant) on childhood injuries due to falling football goals on playgrounds and sports grounds in Russia. The state does not collect separate statistics on such incidents, Anastasia Shardakova, the leading lawyer for the Travmpunkt project, told Kommersant, so the authors had to study open sources: “Each such incident causes a wide public outcry, so we can meet several publications at once – from local to federal MASS MEDIA. It remains for us to collect them in a table.

According to the report, in 2017, the media reported 14 cases of children being injured by falling gates, ranging from bruises and fractures to fractures of the base of the skull and coma. Three cases ended in death (Tyva Republic, Perm Territory, Chechen Republic). In 2018, there were at least 15 injuries, of which three were fatal (Sevastopol, North Ossetia, Moscow region). In 2019 – 14 injuries with three deaths (Arkhangelsk, Tula, Sverdlovsk regions), in 2020 – 15 cases, three children died (Omsk region, the Republic of Adygea, Dagestan). In 2021, the media reported 12 injuries with two confirmed deaths (Crimea, YNAO). In 2022 – 19 falls and four deaths (Altai Territory, Perm Territory, Moscow and Novosibirsk regions).

As of the end of May 2023, human rights activists have already recorded nine “gateway” injuries, including one death. “This year, the tragedy occurred in the village of Titorenko, Saratov region. On March 11, a football goal that was supposed to be bolted to the ground crushed a ten-year-old girl. The girl with bodily injuries was hospitalized in a medical facility, where she died, ”the authors write.

Speaking about the causes of the tragedies, human rights activists point out: “Many playgrounds have an unstable design or are unsatisfactorily maintained.” As a result, “loose gates” literally fall from a gust of wind or as a result of children’s games. Travmpunkt emphasizes that the issue of “maintenance, certification and operation” of football goals is “not regulated by law”. Since 2013, sports equipment manufacturers have been guided by the standards of organizations (STOs). That is, “football goals were made according to specifications developed and approved by a particular enterprise, but quality and safety standards were not coordinated with the state,” human rights activists say. In 2015, STOs were replaced by GOSTs, which “established the characteristics of the gate and contained requirements for their fastening.” They also prescribed “regularly check the tightness of the tightening of all connections” and indicated that “the gate must be protected from tipping over.”

“Until January 1, 2016, it was possible in Russia to voluntarily certify gates already delivered and put into operation in the GOST RF system,” the authors of the report say. “However, from January 1, 2016, the rules changed, and certification became mandatory.” Nevertheless, these quality requirements applied primarily to new objects. “This gap allowed owners of gates already in operation to not be required to be certified,” the report says. “Owners continued to use gates that did not pass the test and were installed in violation of safety requirements, including the absence of fasteners for their stability. Accordingly, the number of gate falls and victims did not decrease.”

In 2017, the gates were included in the Unified List of Products Subject to Mandatory Certification. Officials, such as school principals, were required to comply with the GOST requirements for gate security. But in 2020, the government excluded the goals for football, hockey, mini-football and handball from this list. “There is not a single document left that would oblige manufacturers, sellers and owners of gates to certify them without fail,” states Ms. Shardakova.

Human rights activists propose to make the certification of sports equipment mandatory, and “control over its passage should be taken over by the state.” It is also necessary to “legally define the circle of persons responsible for the installation, maintenance and operation of football goals”, since “sometimes law enforcement agencies also find it difficult to determine those responsible.”

Kommersant asked Maria Lvova-Belova to comment on the findings of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights report. The press service of the children’s ombudsman confirmed that there are no official figures on injuries at children’s and sports grounds in Russia: “It is advisable to keep statistics throughout the country in order to assess the real scale of the problem and take systemic measures. For example, introduce injury codes so that the police and emergency rooms record these cases in a uniform way.” The press service of Ms. Lvova-Belova is confident that the causes of the tragedies are “unqualified installation of equipment and problems in the operation and maintenance of sites.” According to the Commissioner’s Office, up to 30% of children’s sports grounds in the country are “actually abandoned”, and no one is formally responsible for them. Moreover, these can be actively used sites on the territory of educational organizations and even in children’s recreation camps.

The Public Council under the Children’s Ombudsman plans to develop a checklist that will help “locally monitor the condition of sports grounds easily and competently,” including monitoring the condition and correct installation of football goals. In the meantime, the press service invites citizens to check the reliability of sports equipment on their own: “It is enough for caring parents and social activists to go to the playground and see if the football goal is stable or not.” If the gate is loose, you should inform the management company and the municipality about it in writing, the press service says.

Monitoring the state of children’s and sports grounds is carried out by the all-Russian movement “People’s Front”. They are sure that the cause of the tragedies is the reluctance of departments and organizations “to prescribe in the application for the competition under 44-FZ (public procurement.— “b”) quality requirements for the construction of sports grounds”. “And the contractor, accordingly, is not obliged to fulfill them,” complain in the movement. Applications usually describe only “construction of a field with football goals and stands,” says Svetlana Kalinina, a member of the central headquarters of the Popular Front, chief expert on housing and communal services, construction and landscaping: “Then these football goals are cooked in the garage. And they fix it not as correctly, but as they can. At the same time, “not a single department has the authority to control the quality of construction and commissioning of such facilities,” says Ms. Kalinina: “I personally saw a stadium in the forest on Sakhalin, which was built under the program of the Ministry of Tourism – the gate is fixed on two self-tapping screws, the field is sown incorrectly “.

The press service of the Popular Front told Kommersant that they had repeatedly recorded cases of non-compliance with technical regulations at sports grounds in different regions and reported them to the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation. “But this is a point solution to the problem. It is impossible to go through all the sites overnight: there are a lot of them, new ones are being built every year,” the press service complains. According to the “People’s Front”, this problem can only be solved systematically: “All sports facilities must be put into operation without fail through the acceptance of the State Construction Supervision Authority.”

Polina Yachmennikova, Alexander Chernykh