(Al Jazeera Media Network) Argentinian and Chilean football fans have traded blame after a pitched battle in a Buenos Aires stadium involving knives, sticks and stun grenades, which left 19 people injured, three seriously.
More than 100 people were arrested over some of the worst sporting violence South America has seen in years.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric described Wednesday’s incidents as an “unacceptable lynching” of his compatriots and called for justice.
The violence flared at halftime in a Copa Sudamericana round of 16 game between Argentina’s Independiente and Universidad de Chile.
Fans of the Chilean side began throwing stones, sticks, bottles and a stun grenade at home supporters, an AFP journalist said.
Independiente fans responded by storming the visitors’ enclosure – stripping, beating and bloodying those who could not, or would not, escape.
The game was eventually abandoned.
Ninety-eight people remained in custody on Thursday evening, Chile’s consul general in Buenos Aires, Andrea Concha Herrera, told reporters.
The Chilean government said 19 of its citizens had been hospitalised, including one with stab wounds.
Boric dispatched his interior minister to Buenos Aires to accompany the injured and follow the investigation.
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/8/22/argentina-and-chile-fans-trade-blame-over-barbaric-violence
