At some point, one's going to take a hard look as to whether (if you're in one of these affected countries, etc.) you want to continue to be a fan of "The Beautiful Game".
The fiercest (read: most violent) rivalry in Argentina is between the two football clubs Boca Juniors and River Plate.
The South (and Central) American club championship, the Copa Libertadores, was in it's round of 16, and Boca and River Plate were deep in a two-match series.
River Plate had won the first match at it's stadium 1-0.
The second match, at Boca's stadium, was scoreless at halftime.
Then, all Hell broke loose.
A Boca ultra (basically the soccer equivalent of a stalker) sprayed pepper spray into the tunnel while the River Plate players were coming out for the second half.
Four River Plate players (at least) took direct hits and had to go to the hospital, and the game was halted, to be adjudicated by CONMEBOL, the South American soccer authority.
Boca Juniors, tonight, was expelled from the Libertadores, and River Plate advanced to the quarterfinals with no score to the match given. Straight DQ.
Boca Juniors was fined $200,000 US, has to play it's next four CONMEBOL club tournament matches behind closed doors, and their next four away CONMEBOL club tournament matches are banned to all Boca Juniors fans.
Another similar incident within five years, and they get worse.
I still don't think this is enough. How about we actually shut down these teams with these animal ultras? Is the money that fucking important to CONMEBOL that they have to allow these matches which are clear tinderboxes to take place?
The two teams actually played three matches in 10 days -- the two in this tie, and, I assume, a league match on top of it.
But, as we've seen for years, as long as these teams are allowed to take the pitch, their ultras will follow and cause trouble.
They're just going to cause trouble, now, OUTSIDE the stadia for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment