The decision to suspend the Copa Libertadores final until Sunday has been backed by the presidents of both clubs
Boca Juniors president Daniel Angelici backed the decision to postpone the Copa Libertadores final between his club and bitter rivals River Plate until Sunday.
Boca and River played out a 2-2 draw in the first leg but ugly scenes marred the preparations for Saturday’s return match at River’s El Monumental stadium .
The visitors’ bus was showered with projectiles as it approached the stadium, with some smashing windows of the vehicle. Tear gas being used to disperse the crowd also filtered into the bus, leaving several players feeling the effects.
Pablo Perez was among the Boca players injured in the incident, which initially led to a delayed kick-off and later the announcement of a postponement .
While CONMEBOL wanted the game to go ahead, describing the injuries as “superficial” in a statement that said “there’s no cause for the suspension of the match”, their assessment was angrily rejected by Boca star Carlos Tevez.
“First I want to say to our families that we are alright, most of us are alright, there are three or four injured,” he said to reporters.
“We are being forced to play this game, I have just seen that Pablo [Perez] has a patch over his eye.”
The match was pushed back and is now scheduled to go at 1700 local time (2000 GMT) on Sunday, a full 24 hours after the final was initially set to get under way.
The first leg was also postponed due to bad weather in Buenos Aires and Boca’s president was in full agreement over the decision to push the second leg back to Sunday.
“It was supposed to be a party, a sad day for me,” Angelici told Fox . “Some River outcasts attacked our bus. We were in no condition to play this final.
“I want to thank CONMEBOL and River. We said that we did not want to play with injured players. I think the decision is correct. We need to be ashamed of this as a society. The world was waiting for this match.
“I think the final has to be played under equal terms. We saw that some players were without air in the bus, had to help them quickly. I need to acknowledge the River authorities for their concern.
“CONMEBOL resolved that the match was going to be played, but I saw we had two players in hospital.
“Five or six outcasts ruined the party for 60,000 present inside the stadium.”