00:02And we are underway at the Atanasio Herodot in Medellin, Independiente Medellin against
00:08Flamengo, Papa Libertadores Group A, the reigning champions, Flamengo need a win to guarantee
00:13qualification, the home side, they need one to stay in the hunt, and after a week of protests,
00:20presidential scandals, and even match-fixing allegations tonight, the football is almost
00:24the secondary story for Medellin, Flamengo coming forward early on, opportunity for
00:29Brolin Hickey, a chance now for Luis Araujo to maybe open the scoring, still with Flamengo,
00:34here's Samuel Lino, Leo Pereira, you can see visibility on the pitches reduced early on,
00:45got lots of flares and fireworks going off from the home end, opportunity for Samuel Lino to
00:51get this across, it's for Luis Araujo, and that's just past the post, almost a dream start for
00:57Flamengo, as if you thought things couldn't get any worse for Medellin, that was almost
01:031-0 within the first minute, lovely play on the left-hand side, and Luis Araujo caught that
01:09really well, on the volley with his left foot, almost side-footed that towards goal, but just
01:17past the post.
01:29So to put this unrest into context, I think we might have to pause briefly
01:38because of some protests from the fans.
01:46Medellin at the weekend, they needed a win at home to qualify for the playoffs of the Apertura
01:54in Colombia, and they lost 2-1, knocked out, at the end of the game the club president came
02:03out onto the pitch, started remonstrating towards the home fans, took out notes of money from
02:11his pocket and started throwing it at the home support, insulted them in all sorts, an absolute
02:20mess, at Independiente Medellin, and we see
02:30some really unpleasant scenes, and this game has barely got underway, and we're already going
02:39to have to stop.
02:41This is what the fans had promised.
02:45A big group of the Medellin support said that they were going to boycott this game, they weren't
02:48even going to turn up, another group said, no, we're going to go, and we're going to make
02:52our voices heard.
02:54Protesting is one thing, but security has to be the priority.
03:10There's reports even that the local police had suggested that this game could be played
03:13behind closed doors, it might have been better, perhaps, that they would just not let any of
03:23the fans in, maintain the protest outside of the stadium, and they've decided to go ahead
03:28with things, and we've heard from the very first moment that the Medellin players, even
03:34when they came out to warm up before we joined the transmission, whistles and boos and insults
03:41and all sorts being directed from the home fans at their own players.
03:47And to make things worse, just after that elimination at the weekend, some unsubstantiated
03:55reports came out suggesting that two of the current Medellin players had accepted bribes
04:02to throw the Colombian final last year.
04:06As we say, completely unsubstantiated reports, but that just gives you a dimension of just
04:12the chaos that has exploded at this club over the last week.
04:19The game has been interrupted.
04:23Visibility is poor, but also I don't think the interruption is just because of visibility.
04:32We saw some angry fans knocking over fences and barricades and trying to throw things onto
04:39the pitch.
04:45Players have been brought to the dugouts just for their own safety, really, at the moment.
04:59What you're seeing in the stands tonight is the players have to leave the pitch.
05:08You're seeing this didn't come from nowhere.
05:10This has been building.
05:13Fans had warned that they were going to protest.
05:17And football supporters, of course, they don't turn on their own club out of nowhere.
05:27Of course, it's worth being clear.
05:31We can see, you know, only a section of the crowd.
05:35Being involved in these these pyrotechnics and the flares and these explosions.
05:47I mean, people could take it all to go on somewhere in the hastily.
05:50People trying to make it all.
05:50You can see all the trump and this is a big game.
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