Querétaro (dpa) – After a brawl at a soccer game in central Mexico, the number of injuries has risen to at least 26. This was said by the governor of the state of Querétaro, Mauricio Kuri, in a press conference.
Accordingly, three of them were in critical condition. The first division games scheduled for Sunday were canceled by the Mexican league out of solidarity with those affected.
World governing body FIFA called the incident “barbaric” in a statement. “The violence at Corregidora Stadium was unacceptable and intolerable,” said a statement on Sunday evening. FIFA wanted to reiterate that “violence should have absolutely no place in football and we will continue to work with all groups to ban them from our game.”
In view of the violence and chaos, the newspaper “El Universal” wrote of the “blackest day in the history of Mexican football”. During the game between FC Querétaro and Atlas Guadalajara in the La Corregidora stadium in Querétaro, supporters of both teams first attacked each other in the stands and then stormed onto the field, where they continued to attack each other, some with chairs and poles.
Women and children sought shelter in the stadium tunnels. Players fled to the dressing rooms. Querétaro goalkeeper Washington Aguerre was one of those who stayed on the pitch and tried to influence people. The game was interrupted in the 62nd minute when the score was 0:1 and then stopped.
The civil defense of the state of Querétaro had reported at least 22 injuries on Sunday night. Nine of them were taken to the hospital, two of them with serious injuries, it said in a tweet.
Deaths, which were mentioned in the first reports and which were feared in view of the violent images, were confirmed by Sunday noon (local time) neither by civil defense nor by the government of the state of Querétaro.
The Mexican Football League condemned the events at La Corregidora stadium and announced that an investigation had been launched. League President Arriola said those responsible for the lack of security at the stadium would be punished.
Fan violence in football is a regular occurrence in Mexico and other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil.