14-year-old boy dies during a Libertadores Cup match

[MetroSport]

South American Libertadores Cup match between San Jose and Corinthians in Orouro proved to be the last match for a 14-year-old boy who was there to cheer his favorite team. The young boy named Kevin Beltran was reportedly hit by a flare came from Corinthians fans stand despite a ban on carrying any kind of fireworks in the stadium. Police has arrested 12 Corinthians fans and charged them with homicide that caused an immediate death of a young fan. Police is further investigating the involvement of more fans who brought fireworks in the stadium. As a result, Corinthians will play its next Champions League match behind closed doors, as decided on the last night. The aforesaid match was ended in a 1-1- draw, but at the moment, nobody knows the final outcome of the game coz of an expected disciplinary action which could label a ban on its result. Both Corinthians manager and its director of football grieves about the incident, Corinthians said, "I would exchange my world title for the boy's life. I'm so sorry about what happened tonight. We can't talk about football, my players and I feel the same. We couldn't utter a word in the dressing room. I didn't want to be here, what happened is too heavy to be able to talk of football."

Later, Edu Gaspar also issued his statement offering a condolence to his family, he added, "There is no greater pain in the world than this. How we can we help the family at a time like this? We have to do anything we can. When it happened people were swearing at us and so we had to get out of the area. Our journey home will be tough. There is not much more I can say now other than to express our regret."

On the contrary, club's president later issued a controversial statement where he said whatever happened was not coz of his fans as it was purely an accident. He said in support of his fans, "You either have proof that someone used the flare with the intention to hit a person, or it's a fatality. From what I have seen so far it appears to have been an accident, something that didn't happen on purpose."

Corinthians is the second most popular club in Brazil; hence it is not going to accept any allegation because of this incident. Though, it is also asking for an independent probe to find out the actual culprits. God knows who did it, but a young fan had to face the consequences. May his soul rest in peace!