Tragedy in Liga MX: Querétaro vs. Atlas, how did the conflict start, and who was involved?

The match between Querétaro and Atlas on matchday 9 of the Clausura 2022 was suspended due to a fight between the team's supporters' clubs at the Estadio Corregidora.

More Liga MX News:

Santiago Solari left Club América, but the crisis remains, as they lost against Monterrey

At the 63rd minute, fans from both teams began to enter the field due to clashes in the stands and referee Fernando Guerrero decided to end the game when Atlas was leading 1-0 with a goal by Julio Furch.

How did the conflict begin?

According to the account of a person present at the venue, the outbreak of violence began at the visiting end of the stadium when Atlas fans began to fight "with families that support Queretaro".

"There were not that many people fighting, if they had sent grenadiers there, it would have been all over, but there was no security at all. They were literally fighting while the game was in play and there was no one from security nearby," a witness told ESPN.

According to this testimony, the fight escalated, and "the Querétaro team went around the stadium to beat each other up; later "they went into the field and everything got worse".

At 61', while the ball was still in play, the Querétaro supporters' club showed signs of unrest when they tried to leave their position at the end of the pitch to run across the width of the stadium and a few seconds later Julio Furch gave notice of a "spontaneous" person running onto the pitch. 

At the same time, in an area of the stands near the Querétaro and Atlas goal, they crowded on the accesses to the field to flee from the disturbances that were growing uncontrollably on the part of the authorities.

The pitch witnessed the violence

Once the pitch invasion began, the Atlas players and coaching staff headed for the locker room almost immediately, while their Querétaro counterparts stayed a few moments longer. It is worth mentioning that Gallos Blancos' starting goalkeeper, Washington Aguerre, stayed on the field to calm things down after the pitch invasion and subsequent disturbances.

For the next two minutes, the number of people on the green pitch increased, still in apparent calm, until, halfway through the 65th minute, the crowd began to retreat to the side of the enclosure that houses the dugouts, as the aggressors also came down to continue the riot.

On that flank, several reprehensible acts took place, such as the beating of a person who was left lying on the touchline and people throwing objects into the stands. The VAR booth, located in that area, was also vandalized and the monitor screen was completely smashed.

More Liga MX News:

Who is Julio Furch, the lethal striker who has become a historic Atlas player?