How did the barras get into Mexican soccer, which triggered the Liga MX brawl?

The tragedy that occurred in the Querétaro vs Atlas match has its origins in the 90s.

07/03/2022, 01:56 AM +00:00

After the tragedy that occurred in the Queretaro vs Atlas match yesterday, everyone is wondering, how did the barras come to Mexican soccer, which detonated the fight in Liga MX?

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Was the tragedy that occurred in the Liga MX match Atlas vs Querétaro premeditated?

The question is very important to understand how it was possible for such a tragedy to happen in a game where there were families who had to flee the stands to take shelter from the violence.

How did the barras come to Mexican soccer?

According to Mexican media reports, the barras arrived in Mexico in 1996 through Andrés Fassi, who at the time was the owner of Grupo Pachuca and vice-president of the Tuzos.

Before continuing, the barras, or "animation groups", as they are also known, are organized groups of fans of soccer clubs that attend matches and support their teams.

Unfortunately, however, these groups have also clashed with other rival barras, causing events such as the tragedy that occurred yesterday at the Corregidora Stadium in Querétaro.

These groups, which used to be common only in Central and South America, arrived in Mexico when Fassi traveled to Costa Rica to close the signing of Rolando Fonseca to take him to the Tuzos.

However, on that trip, the manager also met the Saprissa barra, which left him with the desire to implement something like this in Mexico, especially because of a recent experience he had had with his team.

In that year of 1995, Pachuca had just lost the final for promotion to Liga MX against Celaya, and Fassi had in mind that the atmosphere in the stadium was very subdued.

1996: the year of the debut of the barras in Liga MX

With this idea in mind, the manager returned from Costa Rica with the Chilean Eduardo "Lalo" Gonzáles Tapia and the Costa Rican Jorge "Chino" Díaz, who, just as they had created the Saprissa barra, were in charge of creating the "Ultra Tuza".

With this project, the Pachuca barra took shape and on January 25, 1996, the "Ultra Tuza" made its debut in Mexican soccer, in a match between the Tuzos and Club América.

And just half a year later, when Pachuca was promoted to the First Division of Mexican soccer, the barra also rose with them, and other Liga MX clubs decided to replicate this model.