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Football

09th Apr 2019

Brazilian football match descends into mass brawl as police use pepper spray to disperse crowd

A mass brawl in a Brazilian Serie B match prompted police to enter the field and use pepper spray, and left the club photographer in need of a stretcher

Reuben Pinder

Brazilian football is fucking mad

European football is not perfect by any stretch. There are deep-rooted corruption problems that pollute our beloved game, with money concentrated to the very top as well as the obvious inability to properly tackle discrimination within the game.

But every now and then, something happens in south America to remind us that it could be so much worse. Whether it’s cup finals being called off because of buses being attacked by rival fans, people sneaking fireworks into stadiums, or mass brawls on the pitch, they always manage to take it several steps further than us Europeans.

The latest example of such madness came in Brazil this weekend, when a brawl broke out between players and staff of Atletico Goianiense and Vila Nova. It’s not clear what sparked the fight, but everyone piled in, prompting police to enter the field and use pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

It got so violent that an official club photographer sustained injuries meaning he had to be carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital.

https://twitter.com/marathonbet/status/1115576299882450944

You don’t get that in the Championship do you? Well, not to the same extent.