The incident cropped up when TV cameras captured the right moment -barely five minutes into the match scoring 1-0 lead for ‘cruzados’ team- a bunch of UC fans tossed fireworks near UC goalkeeper, Matin Parra, who went down clutching his ears before he was carried away on a stretcher and taken to hospital in Santiago.

The match was suspended by main referee, but Chile´s Football Federation decided to postpone it for a date and venue yet to be defined, as severe sanction and send off UC from Cup 2022 were the rights decision to make.

According to Daniel Manouchehri, member of the Sports Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, this sanction shows a sign of impunity to criminality in the stadiums.

They´re killing our soccer’, he added, while informing he requested a meeting in Congress to specifically address this worrying issue of violence in sports venues.

It is time, said Manouchehri, to recover soccer for our families´ enjoyment. This incident also caused unease that so far no Crusados board of directors has taken interest in Parra´s health conditions who has already been released from hospital but must wait few days before returning to the pitch.

mh/pll/mv/car/eam.