[imagesource: STR, AFP via Getty Images]

Go to a rugby match, or a cricket match, or pretty much any sporting event, and rival fans can sit together without any problems.

For some reason, football brings out the worst in people and that was very much on display in Mexico’s top football league this weekend.

Saturday’s match between hosts Queretaro and Atlas from Guadalajara, the reigning champions, descended into anarchy after brawls broke out in the stands.

The match was stopped after 62 minutes and the ensuing violence has been dubbed the “darkest day” in the history of Mexican football.

Here’s Axios:

Fans attacked each other with knives, chairs, metal poles and other objects. Horrifying footage appeared to show people being beaten to death, or close.

Blame has fallen mostly on hard-core Querétaro fans known as “barras bravas,” or fierce gangs… most, if not all, hospitalized fans were Atlas supporters…

There are conflicting reports about how many people were injured or killed at Querétaro’s Estadio Corregidora, which hosted World Cup games in 1986.

Official reports from state authorities claim that 26 people were hospitalised but there were no deaths.

It’s an entirely different story coming from local reporters, who say the death toll is at least 17 and far more than 26 people required hospitalisation.

Some of those who ended up in hospital even required police escorts to return home to avoid further attacks.

Take a look at some of the less hardcore footage – yes, this is the tame stuff:

Dramatic scenes today in Mexico. Reports of 17 dead at the Atlas vs Querétaro game.
😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/35GGIiENwT

— puritan (@puritan_777) March 6, 2022

On Saturday, early in the second half of a Mexican league game between visiting Atlas and Querétaro FC, a riot broke out in Estadio Corregidora.

The brawl has left Mexico in mourning, triggering questions about transparency, security and accountability.https://t.co/l2jfnypSOs pic.twitter.com/Klc01uke2y

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 8, 2022

#Mexico : At least 17 dead and dozens injured in serious clashes between fans, during the football championship match (Liga MX), between Querétaro and Atlas clubs at Corregidora Stadium. The referee stopped the match in the 63rd minute#Russia_Ukraine_War pic.twitter.com/gmHbIUadHo

— World News (@ne23614114) March 6, 2022

Crazy what happen in #Queretaro 17 dead that’s why I don like soccer 🥊🚫 pic.twitter.com/DVJmaHzcsi

— Enrique Contreras T. (@ContrerasDriver) March 6, 2022

There are far, far worse videos doing the rounds.

I won’t embed them, but a simple search for ‘Queretaro’ on Twitter reveals such horrors as this, this, this, this, and this.

It appears obvious from some of that footage that people were killed both inside the stadium, and outside it.

Liga MX has now been suspended so that an investigation can take place. The fact that there were just 600 security personnel in a stadium with a capacity in excess of 34 000 people will be looked at.

Enrique Alfaro, the governor of Jalisco state, whose capital is Guadalajara, said this likely goes beyond traditional football rivalry and could have been a war between drug cartel members.

As we well know, they have no problem with murder in broad daylight.

[source:axios]