Monrovia — At least eight people died of suffocation caused by overcrowding at the stadium where Liberia faced the Gambia in a soccer match Sunday, according to published news reports in Monrovia today.

The Lone Stars of Liberia were playing their counterparts from the Gambia at the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sport Complex in Monrovia. The game was an African Nations Cup/World Cup qualifying match

The stadium seating capacity is about 35,000 but security guards could not contain thousands more who flooded the stadium. The match was Liberia's first game in the qualifying series and expectations for what many regard as a new team – especially with the hiring of the German coach, Antoine Hey – have been building for weeks.

Authorities at the Liberia Football Association are blaming "criminal elements" who produced duplicate tickets for the overcrowding of the stadium. Football lovers started arriving hours before the game started and it became apparent long before kick-off that there would be problems in controlling the crowd.

Local radio stations were told before the match to ask those en route to the stadium to turn back. It is not clear whether this call was heeded – there were already thousands of people outside the stadium, waiting to enter.

In the stadium itself, the crowd became rowdy, pushing and shoving. There were many cries for "water" when the heat from the midday sun set in. The showers of rain that fell did not alleviate the problem and fire trucks had to be called upon to help

The game itself ended in a 1-1 draw.

With another game scheduled for the stadium, many are calling on the authorities to treat Sunday's tragedy as a wake-up call to plan better.