By Chris Wright
All the fun and frolics begin at the 2:25 mark
Nine Uruguayan players have been suspended from football for two months for their respective parts in the mass brawl that erupted during the closing stages of Tuesday evening’s game between Penarol and Nacional.
The fixture was supposedly a ‘friendly’ version of the two Montevideo-based clubs’ “Clasico Charrua” derby (the game was part of a four-club tournament held during Uruguayan football’s mid-season break), but chaos broke out in the last ten minutes of the match when a violent lunge from Penarol’s Carlos Nunez sparked a fist-fight that caused a six-minute delay.
Two players from each side were shown red cards after the punch-up subsided before eleven players were arrested immediately after the final whistle.
Two of the eleven players, including Nacional captain Andres Scotti, were then absolved of any blame and released while the remaining nine (four from Penarol and five from Nacional) all spent the night in police custody.
After giving testimony in court, judge Blanca Riera issued all nine players with two-month bans on Wednesday – though the ban only covers domestic games, meaning that the Nacional players will be free to play in the preliminary round of the Copa Libertadores Cup next Tuesday as the club are playing away against Bolivian side Oriente Petrolero.