Threatening your Team with Death if they don’t Lose is one way to Show Support

I honestly want to like the football league in Argentina. It has some of the best young players in the world, there are teams steeped in history and rivalries that rival the best in any league in the world. When you watch a match on television you can feel the passion of the fans. Unfortunately, this passion is also one of the biggest detriments to the league. Every week it seems like a game has to be abandoned because of fan violence or because a referee is hit by a piece of concrete and on and on.

The latest sad chapter comes courtesy of a few idiots who support Gimnasia-La Plata. Argentine investigators are looking into claims that death threats were made against Gimnasia’s players ahead of their match Wednesday against Boca Junions. According to the sports daily Ole:

Ole said that around 20 supporters, four of whom were armed, entered the players’ quarters on Tuesday night and told them that Boca had to win.

The Gimnasia fans wanted to see their team lose because a win would have helped arch-rivals Estudiantes in their race to beat out Boca Juniors for the league title.

Boca Juniors did, in fact, go on to win 4-1 in a game that was the second half of a match that had to be suspended at halftime in September because referee Daniel Gimenez had been threatened in his dressing room by Gimnasia president Juan Jose Munoz.

Maybe they should start awarding bonus points for victories that come in matches that aren’t suspended?

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Category: South America