February 5 – The Argentine FA has sanctioned 15 players after a pre-season friendly between Estudiantes and arch-rivals Gimnasia La Plata was abandoned following a mass brawl.
The bans range from one to eight games after players punched and kicked each other in stoppage time, the latest appalling incident to rock the domestic game .
Argentina’s new President Mauricio Macri, chairman of Boca Juniors, vowed to crack down on football violence when the recent Buenos Aires derby between the country’s two most popular teams, Boca and their fierce rivals River Plate, descended into a full-scale punchup. Five players were sent off and River Plate’s goalkeeper was hit by a missile from the stands, but the match carried on to end in a 1-0 win for River.
Six people were reportedly killed in football-related violence in Argentina last year, 16 in 2014 and 12 in each of the two years before that.
Mariano Berges, who heads the Argentine anti-violence football charity Let’s Save Football, commented: “This is violence by the players, but violent groups of the clubs’ fans pressure them. It seems there is now political resolve to end this problem. That is what has been missing over the last 20 years. In that time there has been a lot of talk but nothing done in practice.”
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