2024-03-11 00:25:17
The Presidential Delegation decided to suspend the commitment between the University of Chile and Cobresal, even though all the tickets were already sold.
This Friday, February 16, only two days before the match valid for the first date of the National Championship between the University of Chile and Cobresal at the National Stadiumthe Presidential Delegation made the decision to suspend the duel.
This determination was made after the lapidary reports from the police and government authorities, which suggested rescheduling the meeting. This is due to the serious incidents recorded last Sunday in the Super Cup played between Colo Colo and Huachipatowhere the white fans damaged part of the memorial and set fire to a sector of the North Gallery.
After that, the Presidential Delegation demanded that security measures be reinforced, even though the plan had already been agreed upon. In fact, the club Universidad de Chile complied with all requests and provisionsone of them being capacity reduction from 44 thousand to 32 thousand people.
However, yesterday afternoon the measure indicated by the total closure of the North Gallery of the National Stadium, even though ticket sales had already begun.
Why was the match between Universidad de Chile and Cobresal at the National Stadium suspended?
Among the reports compiled regarding the viability of the development of the match, Carabineros and Estadio Seguro emphasized the lack of police contingent.
In this sense, the police institution stated that a large part of its contingent is in the Valparaíso Region supporting the work after the fires.
This situation would also have been reported in the run-up to the Super Cup final, a duel that they also proposed suspending. However, the match took place and ended with serious acts of violence.
In addition, they informed the Presidential Delegation that Santiago 2023 has not yet delivered the entire National Stadium Park and that not all the security cameras were working, according to La Tercera.
The criticism that the suspension has unleashed
The suspension of the University of Chile match was an open secret, which was only made official this morning. This has provoked various reactions, taking into account that it was reported just two days after the meeting.
“We comply with all the demands requested by the authority, but no private entity is empowered to combat crime,” the manager of the ANFP Professional Leagues, Yamal Rajab, commented on Radio Futuro.
Johnny Herrera, a historic former U soccer player, expressed his annoyance at the decision and criticized the authorities. “The confusion of the people is sad who in one way or another wants to amend the course of our football, doing things on time, doing things in batches”said.
To which he added: “Someone’s idea, how many days before the Championship starts? Two days? One day, sorry, tomorrow starts. They are very stupid, it makes you angry, it makes you helpless.“.
The hard blow that the U received
The commitment agreed for Sunday at 6:00 p.m. marked the reunion of the blues with the Ñuñoa venue after several months without using it. In the last year, the stadium was remodeled for the Pan American and Parapan American Games.
For this reason, there was a lot of expectation for the return of the University of Chile to the colossus of Ñuñoa. In fact, this Thursday the team practiced on the field of said venue.
In this way, the suspension of the third match of Date 1 of the National Tournament. Likewise, the duel between Unión La Calera and Universidad Católica were also suspended due to lack of police contingent, while the crossing between Everton and Palestino are postponed due to the forest fires that have affected the region.