KEIR RADNEDGE in MONTEVIDEO —- South American confederation CONMEBOL has ordered that the twice-postponed second leg of the Copa Libertadores final between Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate will be played on December 8 or 9 – and not in Argentina.

The first leg ended in a 2-2 draw and last Saturday’s return in River’s Monumental stadium was switched until Sunday after a hooligan attack on the Boca team bus. Boca then complained that their players were still in no state to play so CONMEBOL decided on a further postponement to a date to be decided.

Another decision for Alejandro Dominguez

CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez today met senior officials and the Boca and River presidents at the confederation’s headquarters in Luque near Asuncion, Paraguay.

Afterwards he announced that the ‘Superfinal’ will be played “between December 8 and 9 at the time and venue to be defined as soon as possible.”

For this reason, the Confederation ” will be responsible for the travel, lodging, food and internal transfer costs of up to 40 people per delegation . . . it will [also] establish security coordination with the corresponding authorities.”

Not clarified was whether the match would be played in South America or perhaps the Middle East and whether fans would be permitted to be present.

This is not necessarily the end of the matter. Boca has appealed to CONMEBOL’s disciplinary committee to declare the second leg a walkover victory. Boca president Daniel Angelici has said they will not play the final on December 8 or 9 if the disciplinary panel has not made a decision on Saturday’s incidents by then. He also said Boca may appeal against any decision to first CONMEBOL and then, if necessary, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Dominguez is under heavy pressure to try to save the tattered reputation of a confederation which was raddled for years by corruption and has now proved incompetent of organising competently the final of its own major club event.

He said: “I have to tell the football family, sports fans, that football is not what we experienced this weekend, that is a disease that must be eradicated,  violence is not part of football.

” I do not know why passion is confused with violence or that winning or losing is life or death. Football is a sport of proper values and one of the most important is respect and loyalty for the opposition.

“My request to both presidents, regardless of whether they have the obligation to defend the rights of each of their institutions, my request is that the message sent is correct, there is no place for the violent, they can not be tolerated If we are thinking that we want something better, we all have to collaborate, the place of football is on the field with our cracks. ”

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