LAUSANNE: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed an urgent request for provisional measures filed yesterday by CA Boca Juniors.

A CAS statement explained:

[Boca’s request] sought to suspend the second leg of the final of the Copa Libertadores 2018 between CA Boca Juniors and CA River Plate to be played in the stadium Santiago Bernabéu on 9 December 2018 in Madrid, following the decision of the Cámara de Apelaciones of CONMEBOL rejecting on 6 December 2018 the appeal and request of CA Boca Juniors to disqualify CA River Plate from the Copa Libertadores 2018.

The second leg of the final of the Copa Libertadores 2018 between the two teams of Buenos Aires was initially set to take place on 24 November 2018 at the home stadium of River Plate but was eventually cancelled after the Boca Juniors team bus was attacked on the way to the stadium Monumental. Following these incidents, the CONMEBOL authorities decided that the second leg of the final should be played on 9 December 2018 in Madrid. CA

Boca Juniors requested CONMEBOL to disqualify the club of River Plate from the Copa Libertadores 2018 but such request was rejected first by the Tribunal de Disciplina of CONMEBOL on 29 November 2018 and then by the the Cámara de Apelaciones on 6 December 2018. On 7 December 2018, CA Boca Juniors filed an appeal at the CAS, together with an urgent request for provisional measures; such request for provisional measures was dismissed today.

In its appeal, CA Boca Juniors requests that the decision of the Cámara de Apelaciones of CONMEBOL be set aside and that the club of River Plate be disqualified from the Copa Libertadores 2018. The merits of the appeal will be examined at a later stage by a CAS arbitral panel. The arbitration procedure is on-going with the exchange of written submissions.

################