Soccer officials in Mexico handed down punishment for owners and fans of the central Mexico soccer club Querétaro in the wake of a bloody brawl Saturday, saying Tuesday the team must be sold and barring fans from home games for one year and supporters’ group fans for three years.
More than two dozen fans were hospitalized and there have been 14 arrests stemming from the violence that erupted during Querétaro’s home game against Atlas, the defending Liga MX champion.
The Querétaro team must be put up for sale before the end of the year, league president Mikel Arriola announced after a meeting of the league’s owners, and in the meantime control will revert to the team’s previous owners. The present ownership group of Gabriel Solares, Adolfo Ríos, Greg Taylor and Manuel Velarde will be banned from league-related activities for five years.
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Calling the penalties “historic,” Arriola said during a news conference that the club’s supporters’ groups, known as “barras,” would be banned from Querétaro’s games for three years and extended that ban to the club’s affiliated teams, including its women’s teams. The teams will play the rest of their seasons behind closed doors no matter where they play, he said. In addition, a 1.8-mile security perimeter will be set up around the stadium.
Querétaro owners put “the lives of many at risk” and harmed “the image of the state of Querétaro, its people, the club and Mexican soccer,” Yon de Luisa, president of the Mexican soccer federation, said in the joint announcement with Arriola.
“Starting today, measures will be implemented that will mark a before and after in the protocols that must be observed and followed,” Arriola said (via ESPN). “We are facing the problem head-on, with the aim of changing this negative image from the previous weekend.”
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The club was fined roughly $70,000 and forfeited the match to Atlas, which was leading 1-0 when play was stopped early in the second half. The fans’ group for Atlas was banned from away games for six months. Querétaro’s barras fans will be barred from away games for one year. Anyone found to have been involved in the incident will be given a lifetime ban from all Mexican soccer stadiums.
Authorities in Mexico said they expect to make more arrests as their investigation continues. Twenty-six individuals were identified as participating in the brawl, Guadalupe Murguía, the interior secretary of Querétaro state, said (via the Associated Press). Raids and searches for others continued, based on review of videos and other evidence.
In addition, the state suspended five officials, including police, civil defense workers and several responsible for planning and preparations, after security forces were unable to maintain control. The contract of a private security company was canceled.
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The brawl started with fans fighting in Querétaro’s Corregidora Stadium stands, and violence quickly spread. Security personnel opened gates to the field to allow fans to reach safety — only for fights to spread to the field.
Video showed a bloody, horrifying scene of fans being kicked and beaten by fans with chairs or metal bars. Several fans lay unconscious or injured on the ground, and three who were critically injured remain hospitalized. One fan used a knife to cut the net from one goal, and the bench on one side was destroyed.
The governor of Jalisco, the state in which Guadalajara is the capital, told reporters Monday that the brawl seemed unusual. “What it seems to me is that what we saw was not a normal dispute between fans,” Enrique Alfaro said, refusing to comment more specifically. “What happened there was something that looked different.”
Teams will also implement safety measures that will include facial recognition technology and fan IDs for members of barras. Minors no longer will be allowed in the supporters’ group sections.
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