Querétaro (AP) – After the riots with 26 injuries at a Mexican soccer game, the national association FMF has imposed a series of penalties on home club FC Querétaro.
Among other things, he has to play all home games – including the women’s and youth teams – in front of empty ranks for a year, as the FMF announced. The company that owns the club must also sell it by the end of the year. According to a statement from the Attorney General of the state of Querétaro, ten people suspected of being involved in the violence have now been arrested.
Last Saturday, during a game in the first Mexican soccer league between FC Querétaro and Atlas Guadalajara, violent fights broke out in the stands between supporters of the two teams. Some people were seriously injured – one man lost an eye. The game was stopped in the 62nd minute when the score was 0:1, and all Liga MX games on Sunday were cancelled. The government of the central Mexican state suspended five officials, including the police chief in charge of the game, and terminated contracts with a private security company.
harsh penalties
The game will be scored 0-3, as announced by association president Yon de Luisa and league boss Mikel Arriola at a press conference. Other penalties ruled by the FMF Disciplinary Committee reportedly included a five-year ban for Querétaro FC board members from managerial and administrative positions at Mexican clubs. The current club leadership has not been able to ensure the safety of supporters at the stadium, Arriola said.
In addition, the club’s ultras are banned from home games for three years and away for one year. Atlas’ Ultras – called animation groups in Mexico – are not allowed to be in the stadium for an away game for six months. More general innovations were also announced at the press conference. In the future, fans will be identified in the stadiums using facial recognition. Anyone who commits violence during a game should be banned from the stadium for life.
Arrest warrants have been issued against the 10 arrested men on suspicion of attempted murder, violence at a sporting event and advocacy of crime, according to the Querétaro Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday. 16 other suspects are still being sought. According to the information, 583 pictures, 78 videos and more than 1000 references from the population were evaluated to identify them. 21 apartments were searched.
The Querétaro Fútbol Club – also called Gallos Blancos (white roosters) – plays its home games in Querétaro, the capital of the central Mexican state of the same name. In its stadium, called La Corregidora, Germany played all three preliminary round matches at the 1986 World Cup.