IMO River (and Boca) are being stupid by putting up a fight against playing at the Bernabeu. Yes River lose home field advantage but also I think they are letting their ego get in the way because of the jokes about playing the final in Spain. If they get over that, they'd realize the final will only gain visibility if it's played in Spain. More people will watch the final world wide just see what happens. And that's a great opportunity to put on a good show and possibly bring some business to their clubs and the Libertadores. Just a thought. They should turn this whole situation into an opportunity.
Technically yes you can say the police failed and River wasn't at fault. Specially if as you've said before (if true) that the whole operation of giving the bus protection was more relaxed than usual. But here is my view. If I am River, and as it had been speculated for weeks that this was going to be WW3, and everybody was worried about how the city would deal with the rivalry, I would coordinate with police to see what their plans were. I would ask for even more security since this is a Libertadores final and emotions are even more heightened. It's in River's best interest that everything goes smooth. They should show that they went above and beyond to ensure all or most risks are accounted for. So for me, the fact that it wasn't their responsibility to monitor outside the stadium doesn't take blame away from them. If there was less security than usual and they didn't know, that's their fault as well. Unless they were lied to. You may respond by saying Boca acted the same way. But that's life. You only get screwed when something goes wrong.
To add to the fooliahness, I’m reading the socios of Real are buying tickets for the final and are trying to flip them for a huge profit. Talk about a disgrace.
Ah bueno... Este miércoles la Justicia Argentina autorizó a Rafael Di Zeo, jefe de la barra de Boca, a viajar a Madrid. lol....... moving the game to Spain in the end is only opening the doors to the violent guys who wouldn't have been able to attend the match in Argentina
And "LMAO #2" -- CONMEBOL announces that the profits made from ticket sales for the match (tens of millions) will be used to create a campaign "against violence in football." que curro, mamita
A waste of money. I mean, FIFA has had their fair play thing for years and players will cheat as much as they can get away with. The only thing players will understand is public reprimand to the level of humiliation. With respect to violence, it takes much tougher actions to solve it. The only trigger for such actions would be harsh sanctions from international football. They way they did in England. CONMEBOL wouldn't dare applying applying such sanctions on Argentina nor Brazil though.
I agree that banning clubs from international competitions might be a solution to violence off the pitch, but in the end its all about money. 300 million people watched the first leg in la bombonera, and 350 million are estimated to tune in on Sunday for the return leg. In comparison, only 60 million watched last year’s games between Gremio and Lanus. If CONMEBOL took these kind of actions, they’d essentially be stabbing themselves by taking out the big dogs like River, Boca, Flamengo, etc from their competition. Without them, they could kiss their sponsorship and TV money goodbye
Politics. I'm no expert in how these violent "fans" operate in your country, but they do have some sort of relationship with both team management and people in positions of power. If they lacked one or both, they would never get the tickets to watch every single match (all the more the important cup and league fixtures), and they wouldn't be relatively free from the sanctions of the laws for the crimes they commit. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the "people in positions of power" included not only the cartolas of teams, but also politicians and even senior officers in security forces. This is what this article actually alleges. I remember that during the 2014 World Cup, police corps from Brazil and Argentina worked together to stop the barras. Your country's police provided lists of names and other relevant date so Brazilian law enforcement could track down, arrest, and deport them. Not that every single one was arrested, but some successes were registered, such as the Brazilian police's arrest of Pablo Álvarez, a barra from Independiente. It's therefore "justified" in the sense that there is sufficient collaboration between these criminals and people occupying positions of influence who somehow "tolerate" them. I'm not saying zero corruption is the case in Spain, but Spain is a first-world country and what these barras may think is the "norm" in their country is not going to be allowed elsewhere.
Was a poor showing from both team for most of the half. Lots of nervousness. Brilliant counter from Boca on the goal though.
River will have to do a lot better if they are to score. Right now, I can only see them getting a goal via a penal or a Boca blunder. They are getting nothing from their midfield.