Boca Juniors ask CONMEBOL to suspend Copa Libertadores and punish River Plate
River Plate fans attacked Boca Juniors' team bus on Saturday, and now the Xeneizes have asked for the match to be suspended again.
Boca Juniors have requested CONMEBOL suspends the Copa Libertadores final second leg and punish River Plate after their team bus was attacked by Millonarios fans on Saturday when the match was initially supposed to take place.
The Xeneizes travelled across Buenos Aires with the final all-square at 2-2 after the opening game at La Bombonera, but their bus was showered with projectiles on the way to River's El Monumental stadium, with some smashing windows of the vehicle.
Eventually the vehicle arrived at the ground, but Boca captain Pablo Perez and his team-mate Gonzalo Lamardo were taken to hospital for assessment, while other players appeared to have been affected by the use of pepper spray.
CONMEBOL medical officials deemed the injuries sustained to be "superficial" and approved the match to proceed despite Carlos Tevez's protests that Boca were unfit to play.
After discussions that led to several delays, the game was eventually suspended for 24 hours until 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Sunday, but now Boca are urging authorities to not let the game go ahead at all this weekend.
Comunicado de prensa | El Club Atlético Boca Juniors realizó este domingo una presentación formal ante la Conmebol para solicitar que la final de la Copa Libertadores se juegue en condiciones de igualdad, tal como se firmó ayer en el Estadio Monumental. November 25, 2018
A Boca statement read: "Club Atletico Boca Juniors made a formal presentation to CONMEBOL on Sunday to request that the final of the Copa Libertadores be played in conditions of equality, as agreed by the presidents of Boca and River on Saturday at El Monumental.
"In the afternoon of yesterday, Boca Juniors requested to postpone the match due to the incidents and it was established as a priority that it could be played under equal conditions.
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"After the acts of violence suffered in the vicinity of the stadium, having noted the magnitude and seriousness of them and the consequences they have generated in the establishment, Boca considers that these conditions are not met and requests the suspension of the match, as well as the application of the corresponding sanctions provided for in article 18, so that CONMEBOL acts accordingly."
Although Boca did not demand specific punishments for River, article 18 of the CONMEBOL statutes covers a wide range of sanctions, including; fines, cancellation of a match, obligation to play a game behind closed doors, withdrawal of a title or prize.
River remain confident the match will go ahead, reminding fans in a tweet nine minutes after Boca released their statement that El Monumental's doors opened at 13:00 local time.
River Plate les recuerda a los simpatizantes que la apertura de puertas del Estadio Monumental es a las 13 hs.Importante: el ticket de ayer, que es intransferible, tendrá validez para ingresar hoy (traer DNI).November 25, 2018