Argentinian football club Boca Juniors "has had two tiers of terracing at its La Bombonera stadium closed" after crowd violence at Sunday's superclasico against River Plate, and "faces a possible suspension of the entire ground," according to Rex Gowar of REUTERS. Boca fans on the terracing behind the goal River was defending in the second half "lit flares and threw fireworks and objects into the penalty box," causing referee German Delfino to halt play for nearly 10 minutes. Delfino said that "he came very close to abandoning the match." Public prosecutor Martin Lopez Zavaleta said, "We have opened a case to see who's responsible. What we're investigating are fireworks being taken into the stadium. The (security) operation failed because there should not have been all those fireworks and banners inside the stadium. We confiscated film footage, we're not ruling anything out" (REUTERS, 5/6).
PLAYER PROTEST: REUTERS' Gowar also reported "some objects hit River goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero, who appeared to tell referee German Delfino his team could not play on under the circumstances." Delfino, who dished out yellow cards to several players on each side "in a keenly contested clash between the most bitter rivals in South America," opted not to abandon the match and added 12 minutes on to the 90 (REUTERS, 5/5). OLE reported Zavaleta later announced that if it is discovered that "there was a planned effort by Boca Juniors to allow fireworks, it could demand the closing of the entire stadium" (OLE, 5/6).
