A night of continental soccer in Europe and South America means the start of great celebrations inside the stadiums, with duels on and off the pitch so that the best team wins with the best strategy and the fans of the home team outshine the visitors with their shouts of support. However, the situation in Conmebol's continental tournaments ends up descending into recurring cases of racism and violence due to cultural issues, but the scenes that were recorded on August 20, 2025 will tragically go down in the history of world soccer.
In the quarter-finals of the Conmebol Sudamericana (the second most important tournament in South America, similar to the Europa League), the match between Independiente and Unviersidad de Chile was called off after an uncontrolled riot broke out in the visitors' stands, causing the game in Buenos Aires to be interrupted.
The official information that was released shortly after the incident indicates that three fans were injured in a very serious condition, while another seven people were injured in a medium degree. With regard to arrests, the official information indicates that 300 Chilean fans were arrested because of the confusion caused shortly after the start of the second half.
Initially, Conmebol officially announced that the match will not have a winner declared on the pitch, without indicating the possibility of both teams returning to the field. The winner will therefore be decided by the courts, with one of the clubs having to face Alianza Lima in the quarter-finals in the event of a declared victory. However, the Colombian team could be guaranteed a place in the semi-finals without taking the field if Universidad de Chile and Independiente are eliminated.
Understand how the violent confusion started
The sad images captured by the Argentine press show that the confusion began when a Universidad de Chile fan threw a firecracker in the direction of the Indpendiente fans. With a much smaller number of personnel than in the crisis situation, the Argentinian police allegedly allowed Independiente hooligans to enter the Chilean supporters' sections to "help" in the fight, starting a sequence of very unfortunate scenes.