Argentine government identifies Boca players for inciting violence

By Rex Gowar (Reuters) - Argentina’s government has identified Boca Juniors striker Dani Osvaldo and his team mate Daniel Diaz for inciting violence at a football match. The government of President Mauricio Macri, a former Boca chairman, has vowed to eradicate violence by Argentine football hooligans, called barrabravas, which has led to nearly 90 deaths in the last decade. Osvaldo and Diaz made insulting gestures towards fans of Boca’s arch-rivals River Plate during a friendly game marred by 40 fouls and five red cards last weekend. Such friendlies, contested just as seriously as championship matches, are an annual fixture during the off-season at the Atlantic seaside resort of Mar del Plata. “Apart from the very grave fouls committed during the game and opportunely punished by the referee, this ministry is concerned about the behaviour of most of the players towards the referee (Patricio Loustau) and especially the attitude of Boca Juniors players Daniel Osvaldo and Daniel Alberto Diaz,” said a Security Ministry statement sent to the Argentine Football Association (AFA). It added that the “provocative gestures (by the two players) towards rival fans constitutes an evident and manifest incitement to violence” and asked to be kept informed of any punishments handed down. Four of the five players sent off during the match, all senior professionals with European club experience including Diaz, have been suspended for between one and three friendlies but they are free to turn out for their clubs when the first division championship kicks off on Feb. 5. Osvaldo lasted less than five months with Premier League Southampton in the 2013-14 season before being kicked out following a three-match FA ban for violent conduct and a two-week club suspension for a training-ground incident. The government, due to hold a meeting with football authorities on Friday, has begun to address the issue of football violence. It said this week that it will take on the security costs at matches which clubs, most of them in debt, have so far had to negotiate with local police precincts or security committees. The Security ministry said on its website (www.minseg.gob.ar) it was introducing a register of people allowed to attend matches and those to be denied entry including the reasons. The NGO Salvemos al Futbol (let’s save football) lists 310 deaths in the Argentine game since 1922, 88 in the last decade, on its website (www.salvemosalfutbol.org). The most recent was a 41-year-old man stabbed during fighting between rival fans at a friendly in the north-western city of Tucuman which had to be abandoned last Sunday. (Writing by Rex Gowar, editing by Ed Osmond)