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After the Copa Libertadores Final fracas should the South American Football Federation be condemned?

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Every so often we hear the old saying that South American and Brazilian’s particularly showed the rest of the world how to play thrilling, flamboyant and purist football displaying flair, trickery and amazing ball control as important elements in creating a winning formula out on the pitch. As we have witnessed at many World Cups, this more often than not is an undisputable fact, so without hesitation during my craving for some top quality football entertainment I tuned into the late night coverage of the Copa Libertadores Final second-leg taking place in Sao Paulo, contested between the famous Brazilian club Santos and Uruguayan club Penarol.

The first-leg of the tie played in Montevideo, Uruguay had finished 0-0. This left the second-leg on a knife edge. The hosts Santos found their stride early and played some fantastic football throughout the contest, but Penarol who had won the trophy previously five times, held strong defensively and it wasn’t until the second half did Santos began to gain some reward for the overall dominance displayed on the pitch. Neymar and then Danilo, struck for Santos to give them a 2-0 lead, Penarol pulled a goal back late on but it wasn’t enough to stop Santos securing their first Copa Libertadores triumph since a certain Pele inspired team beat Boca Juniors in 1963.

Once the referee had blown the final whistle, I foolishly thought the night’s action had come to a halt but seen as it was late, I must have failed to recognize that also scheduled to take place immediately after the final whistle was a full scale Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) royal rumble type brawl.

In the red corner stood the Penarol warriors/squad, feeling aggrieved with their inability to win the match. Decided to even the score and get the night’s main event MMA action underway. But in the blue corner stood their nemeses a team that had just denied them their chance of glory the celebrating Santos squad lead by the highly rated footballer/ “kickboxer” Neymar.

The brawl included players, members of coaching staff and even fans that had invaded the pitch to provoke the defeated players, what ensued left me wondering had I stayed up to long and could my eyes be starting to deceive me (They weren’t). Penarol lead the first attack with a wave of expertly timed Muay-Thai knees and front kicks to the body and head of their startled foes. Santos bewildered by the exchange, galvanized themselves into action and fought back with stinging left and right hooks and crunching flying kicks that had the opposition once again on the back foot, trying to survive.

Neymar not content with his goal and man of the match performance, then displayed all the skill and technique of a high level MMA fighter, he was now head hunting and looking for a knock out of the night bonus. The young Brazilian rated as one of the hottest talents to emerge from Brazil, was seen launching a flying kick into an opponent’s chest and then lay down some vicious ground and pound that brought the end to the unsanctioned MMA bout. A quite incredible way to end what is the South American equivalent of the Champions League Final played here in Europe.

We’ve become accustom over the years to witnessing riots and violence associated with football especially in South America. But the majority of the violence and hooligan behaviour takes place in the terraces amongst the rival fans not amongst the players and staff. At present there does not appear to be any investigating been made by either CONMEBOL (South American Football Federation) or FIFA as to the events that happened at the end of the Copa Libertadores final between the two sides.

Imagine if you will this scenario happening at a showpiece final in UK. What would the reaction of the World governing bodies such as FIFA and UEFA be? Would it be let’s just sweep in under the rug and forget it even took place or would they take a more serious approach to the matter dishing out bans, punishments and suspensions as they see fit? In my opinion it would be the latter with UEFA handing out European bans or even life bans to the guilty parties involved.

This to me represents a gross negligent by the footballing authorities to not reprimand the two clubs and players that were involved in the brawl and my stance is further vindicated by the lack of sanctions handed down by the relevant authorities.

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