Libertadores final will take place outside Buenos Aires

President of the CONMENBOL Alejandro Dominguez. Photo: REUTERS/Jorge Adorno

Matt Slater

The second leg of the Copa Libertadores final between Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate will be played outside Argentina on either December 8 or 9, South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL has announced.

Billed as the biggest club game in South American football history, the second leg was twice delayed on Saturday, postponed until Sunday and then called off following an attack by River Plate fans on the Boca team coach.

With the tie poised at 2-2, Boca players were left injured by shards of broken glass and affected by tear gas, which was fired by police to disperse the crowd outside River Plate’s El Monumental stadium.

It had been hoped that the final of the South American equivalent of the Champions League, the first between Argentina’s most famous clubs, could be completed on Sunday, but Boca asked for another postponement, as some of their players were still suffering from the after-effects of the tear gas.

Having summoned the bosses of the two clubs to CONMEBOL’s headquarters in Paraguay on Tuesday, confederation president Alejandro Dominguez said a decision on whether the game will be played in either two Saturdays’ time or the day after will be made by its disciplinary committee.

But Dominguez told a press conference afterwards that the game would not take place in Argentina.

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