It was a night, according to Lionel Messi, that very nearly turned into a “tragedy”.
Brazil’s World Cup qualifier against Argentina always promised to be a febrile encounter. But few expected the chaotic scenes that almost derailed the game before a ball had been kicked at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
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Fighting between rival supporters and charges by baton-wielding police saw the match delayed by almost half an hour, with players reduced to pleading for calm as they watched the violence unfold.
It was the latest violent football-related incident to mar Brazilian football, after ugly scenes between Boca Juniors fans and Fluminense supporters before the Copa Libertadores final earlier this month, which were also broken up by police using batons.
We analyse what happened at the Maracana and why.
What happened on Tuesday night?
Rival Brazil and Argentina supporters, mixed together in the Maracana — Brazil’s most renowned stadium — clashed during the national anthems before kick-off.
In response, Brazilian police rushed at a large group of Argentinian fans close to the pitch, striking them with their batons. Some fans ripped up seats and threw them back at the charging officers.
Fans clash with police at the Maracana (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)Some supporters came down to the pitch to try and escape the police. One fan was seen lying on a stretcher with blood pouring from his head. Another was also filmed with a head wound, while a distressed supporter in the stands was seen crying with his head in his hands.
Argentina captain Messi tried to defuse the situation by walking over to the area behind the goal where fighting was at its most intense, while goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez at one point jumped up above the barrier and tried to grab a baton out of the hand of a police officer.
Argentina players, including Emiliano Martinez, remonstrate with police (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)Messi then led his team off the pitch and they returned to the dressing room, where they stayed for 22 minutes, while Brazil’s players stayed out on the pitch.
Brazil defender Marquinhos could also be seen pleading for calm.
“We were worried about the families, women and children, that we were seeing in panic up there in the stands,” Marquinhos said. “Down on the pitch, it was hard for us to understand what was going on, it was a very scary situation.”
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Argentina eventually came back on, warmed up for three minutes and the game then finally started. Argentina won the match 1-0 thanks to Nicolas Otamendi’s second-half header to confirm Brazil’s first ever World Cup qualifying defeat at home.
What did the players and coaches say?
The most notable condemnation of the Brazilian police’s tactics came from Messi.
The Inter Miami forward wrote on his Instagram account that the game had been marred “by the repression of Argentina fans once again in Brazil. This madness can’t be tolerated and it has to end now”.
He expanded on those comments when speaking to the media after the final whistle in Rio.
“We saw how they (the police) were hitting people and many players had family members in that area. We couldn’t focus on playing the game,” Messi said. “This also happened here in the Copa Libertadores, (the Brazilian police) again repressing the people.
“It was bad because we saw how they were beating people. You think about the family, the people who are there, who don’t know what’s going on and we are more concerned about that than playing a match. At that point, the match was secondary.”
Lionel Messi was angered by events in Rio (Wagner Meier/Getty Images)Messi said the Argentina players had walked off the pitch as otherwise there “could have been a disaster. We did that to calm things down a bit. When everything calmed down we decided to ask how everyone was, to find out and then we went out”.
Messi’s comments were echoed by Lisandro Martinez, the Argentina and Manchester United defender who was ruled out of the game through injury. “This policing is shameful,” he wrote on Instagram. “How is it possible? When will it end? It’s always the same.”
Fernando Diniz, the interim Brazil coach, condemned the scenes of violence but insisted that they were not unique to his country.
“We don’t like it when these things happen,” he said. “Scenes of violence and disrespect are lamentable. I don’t know exactly what happened here or at the Libertadores final, with fights in the street but it doesn’t just happen in Brazil and Argentina. These things have been happening for some time. We can only lament it and encourage people to be more understanding, to come to the stadium to support their teams. And hope that the public bodies can do more to prevent it.”
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What about the fans?
On Wednesday morning, Eugenio, an Argentina fan, told TV station TYC Sports he woke up in the stadium’s medical centre bloodied and in handcuffs.
He said: “I didn’t fight back or hit anybody. I fell and hit my head on a stair railing at the Maracana. I fell and I don’t remember anything else. I then remember being on a stretcher and I got up inside the infirmary at the Maracana. I never left the Maracana. When I woke up I was handcuffed. My hands were bloodied. My head was bloodied. My eyes were full of blood. I was kept inside a room where they treat people.
“I left the stadium at 4am along with other people. There was a young man from Atlanta, in Argentina, who had two broken bones in his arm and a broken finger. A policeman from the videos (circulating online) took pictures of the X-rays. They took selfies of (the Argentina fans) as if we were war trophies. They thought they were heroes.”
A fan is carried away after being injured in the trouble at the Maracana (Wagner Meier/Getty Images)So, what caused the trouble?
Brazil’s rivalry with Argentina is one of the fiercest in international football so this game was always a powderkeg, particularly as the hosts were welcoming the World Cup winners for the first time since their triumph in Qatar last December.
Colonel Vagner Ferreira, the most senior police officer in the stadium, told Brazilian TV channel SporTV that his forces had been on high alert for Argentina’s visit.
But that history raises questions over why Brazil and Argentina fans were allowed to buy tickets in the same areas of the Maracana, rather than being segregated in their own sections of the stadium.
Fans were mixed in together in Rio (Wagner Meier/Getty Images)The Athletic has spoken to several figures connected to the Argentina and Brazil squads — all of whom wished to remain anonymous to avoid inflaming tensions after the incident — and the common theme was of surprise that fans were mixed in together.
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One said he found the decision “baffling” while another, with close connections to the Argentina players, admitted that they had feared trouble before the match because of the history of how Brazil police matches, and the possibility of the hosts suffering a historic defeat.
Another source close to one of the Argentina players said the visitors’ reaction was also fuelled by concerns over the safety of their own friends and family.
Even Colonel Ferreira admitted that the decision not to segregate fans had backfired.
“Normally, in every game, there is an area for away fans and an area for the home fans,” he said. “Today, the big problem — for individual and public safety — was the way the tickets were sold, all mixed together around the Maracana.”
However, he defended the tactics deployed to quell the unrest in the stadium.
“Every action corresponds to a reaction,” he added. “There is a history of certain sets of fans having greater confrontations with security forces. I think that was the cause. It was necessary to use increasing force. Initially, we used verbal warnings. Later, we had to use the batons. There was no use of non-lethal rounds, rubber bullets. We did not use tear gas. We were very technical.”
Police clash with fans (Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images)How have the authorities responded?
The Brazil Football Federation (CBF) insisted the non-segregation of fans was the norm for games organised by FIFA and CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation).
“Holding the match with mixed fans has always been the knowledge of the Rio de Janeiro military police and other public authorities, as it is the standard in competitions organised by FIFA and CONMEBOL, as occurs in the World Cup qualifiers, in the World Cup itself, the Copa America and other competitions,” the CBF said in a statement.
“Other games between Brazil and Argentina, even with greater appeal, such as the 2019 Copa America semi-final (at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte), were also played with mixed fans. This is not a model invented or imposed by the CBF.”
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The CBF, which said that 1,050 private security guards and more than 700 military police officers were on duty for the match, added that it had been in “constant dialogue” with “competent public bodies, especially the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro” over planning for the game.
“CBF therefore reaffirms that the action, security and operation plan for the match, as approved by the RJ Military Police and other authorities, was strictly adhered to,” it said.
At the time of publication, the CBF had not yet responded to The Athletic’s questions about whether it will continue to mix fans in the stadiums and if it believes the police response was appropriate. The use of police batons is not an unusual tactic in football stadiums throughout South America.
FIFA and the AFA (Argentine Football Association) have also been contacted for a response. CONMEBOL said it was a matter for FIFA and the Brazil Football Federation.
What happens now?
FIFA has said that it will wait for the report provided to them by officials at the ground before deciding its next course of action, but punishments for the CBF cannot be ruled out.
“There is absolutely no place for violence in football, on or off the field,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement on Wednesday. “Such events, as seen during the World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina at the Maracana Stadium, have no place in our sport or society.
“Without exception, all players, fans, staff and officials have to be safe and secure to play and enjoy football, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that this is respected at all levels.”
Additional reporting: Jack Lang, Felipe Cardenas, Gregg Evans, Jacob Tanswell
(Top photo: Daniel Ramalho/AFP via Getty Images)
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