ERIC WEIL in BUENOS AIRES: The mastermind of the pepper spray attack on River Plate players which forced the abandonment of their Copa Libertadores quarter-final clasico has been identified as Boca Juniors hooligan fan Adrian Napolitano.

Napolitano and his lawyer have appeared before a judge after obtaining an agreement that, if he did so, he would not be detained. His home and businesses have been raided by police who have implicated three other men.

Adrian 'Panadero' Napolitano . . . freed on bail

Boca’s president, Daniel Angelici, initially told police that he believed seven Barra Bravas members had been involved which was something of change of mind from a man who said recently that his club had no hooligan followers.

It seems more to have been the case that Angelici was seeking to show his club in the best possible light in the circumstances to the South American confederation (CONMEBOL) to avert future suspension from international competition.

Aggregate win

Angelici was angry that CONMEBOL decided against ordering that the remaining 45 minutes of the match should have been played instead of letting the score stand.

River had won the first leg 1-0 and the return in the Bombonera was goalless at half-time when the pepper spray incident occurred. River thus went through 1-0 on aggregate.

Not that CONMEBOL has an unblemished records in terms of disciplinary action. Two years ago Tigre were expelled from the Copa after refusing to play the second half in Sao Paulo after their players were attacked by opposing fans and security staff.

The clasico mystery was really why it took an hour before the referee abandoned the match. Most of the River Plate players had temporary eye damage and were in no condition to continue. They were dousing themselves with water though some doctors have said that this was worst thing they could have dine.

The players of both teams stayed on the pitch awaiting a decision but only three Boca Juniors players, including Oswaldo, went to the River Plate players to see how they were.

Even worse, before they finally left the pitch the Boca players went to the corner of the stadium occupied by the hooligans and saluted them.

AFA resignation

Angelici also resigned as AFA vice-president saying that in the nine months he had been in the federation post nothing had changed, that clubs continued losing money, despite demanding TV rights cash in advance and that the government’s ‘free soccer’ programmes continued to reorganise match times at short notice – wth decisions taken not by the AFA but by the government.

As reported previously, National Security Secretary Sergioi Berni wants to act against the AFA to stop the leak of tickets to hooligans for international tournaments, to ban hooligans from stadia long-term and to organise the AFAPlus ticket system to keep hooligans out of the grounds.

AFAPlus was created eight years ago but has never been put into use and would not have kept out hooligans since it was the clubs who issued the cards with which fans could obtain tickets from cash machines.

Luis Segura, the current AFA president, immediately replied that this would be a disaster because world federation FIFA could suspend Argentina from international soccer as it does not accept government intervention.

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