Sports
Querétaro fans accept sanctions but wonder if cartels played a role in soccer brawl
Estadio Corregidora sat darkish and silent, the glow from half a dozen safety lights the one factor softening the evening sky blanketing its 34,000 empty seats.
La Corregidora turns into a metropolis unto itself when Querétaro’s soccer staff performs at residence, with hundreds of noisy distributors and followers filling the squat oval stadium and the unpaved parking tons that encompass it. It was imagined to be that approach Thursday when Los Gallos Blancos, because the staff is understood, had been scheduled to play host to San Luis in a vital match with playoff implications for each.
As a substitute, the sport was performed behind closed doorways a 2½-hour drive away in Morelia, a results of sanctions leveled in opposition to Querétaro FC after the staff’s final residence match two weeks in the past resulted in a bloody riot that left 26 individuals hospitalized.
The final of the riot victims was discharged simply hours earlier than Thursday’s kickoff, in accordance with Mexican officers. The variety of victims stays a supply of competition, with critics questioning the accuracy of the federal government’s tally.
Followers conflict throughout a Mexican soccer league match between the host Querétaro and Atlas on March 5 on the Corregidora stadium.
(Sergio Gonzalez / Related Press)
And whereas some on this colonial hub 135 miles northwest of Mexico Metropolis say the tough penalties handed down by the Mexican league and the nation’s soccer federation unfairly punish followers who had nothing to do with the riot, others see the second as a transformational one that might change the game — and Mexico — for the higher.
“I feel completely it’ll. As a result of it’s crucial,” a Gallos season-ticket-holder, who gave his identify solely as Alvaro, stated as he visited mates at a quiet restaurant tucked alongside the warren of slim streets that result in town’s historic central plaza.
As a result of many right here imagine the fan violence that has turn out to be a stain on Mexican soccer is likely to be tied to felony gangs or drug cartels, it’s greatest to stay nameless when speaking about it.
“In a rustic like this, the narcotrafficantes are behind every little thing,” nodded a lady sitting close by, who additionally declined to provide her full identify. “There’s no proof. However we all know.”
Since 2013, at the very least one match a yr has been disrupted by fights or clashes with police, the exception being 2020-2021, when attendance was restricted by COVID-19 protocols. One brawl resulted in gunfire.
However the riot throughout Querétaro’s match with Atlas of Guadalajara, the reigning Mexican champion, stood out each for its savagery and the very fact its horrific outcomes had been captured and shared on social media. Followers attacked each other with knives, chairs, belts, steel bars, even a nook flag pulled from the sector. Some had been left unconscious, their bloody our bodies stripped bare and left mendacity on the chilly concrete.
The violence appeared premeditated and choreographed, witnesses stated, not the results of typical fan ardour spinning uncontrolled.
“What we noticed was not a traditional dispute between followers,” stated Enrique Alfaro, the governor of Jalisco state, when requested about media stories that members of an area drug cartel might need been concerned. “There was one thing that seemed completely different.”
It was among the many worst soccer riots in Mexican historical past, one which has led to 27 arrests, in accordance with Guadalupe Murguía, the inside secretary for the state of Querétaro.
And Mikel Arriola, the politician-turned-president of Liga MX, and Yon de Luisa, president of the Mexican soccer federation, moved swiftly to deal with it, approving punishing sanctions that effected not solely Querétaro, however the league’s different 17 groups as properly.
Followers had been crushed and stripped of their clothes throughout a bloody brawl that erupted between Querétaro and Atlas followers at Corregidora stadium on March 5.
(Sergio Gonzalez / Related Press)
Querétaro should play all of its residence video games in empty stadiums for the subsequent yr, a ban on followers that extends to the membership’s youth and ladies’s groups as properly. The Gallos Blancos’ organized supporter group is banned from residence video games for 3 years and 4 staff house owners have been prohibited from any affiliation with Mexican soccer for 5 years.
The membership was additionally given again to Grupo Caliente, which runs the rival Liga MX staff in Tijuana, with orders to promote possession of the staff by the tip of the yr.
In the meantime the league’s different groups had been ordered to implement obligatory credentialing for its organized fan teams, whose members will likely be restricted to particular areas of every stadium the place they are going to be surrounded by police. Safety will likely be heightened round Liga MX underneath the path of the league workplace.
Throughout an look Thursday earlier than Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, the decrease home of the nation’s bicameral parliament, Arriola indicated he wasn’t achieved, saying he hopes to utterly stamp out so-called barras bravas, fanatical and sometimes violent supporter teams comparable to those who have plagued European soccer.
“I don’t ever actually assume something’s unfair,” stated Paul Foster, a Texas billionaire who’s a part of the possession group of Liga MX membership FC Juárez. “There are penalties and actions and reactions. We now have a accountability as house owners to make it possible for our followers are secure and ensure nothing occurs right here.
“So I don’t actually have a look at it as unfair.”
Liga MX is the preferred soccer league in North America, its televised video games averaging twice as many viewers within the U.S. because the home MLS. It’s Mexico’s model of the NFL and NBA rolled into one.
But in Querétaro, a metropolis of about 1,000,000 that has all of the sudden been left and not using a staff to cheer for in individual, individuals have taken a nuanced view of the sanctions.
“It’s very sophisticated,” stated Paulina Hernández, a journalist who writes about soccer. “There are lots of people who go to the stadium to not trigger issues, simply to look at the sport. However in a state of affairs like this, it’s important to do one thing.”
Querétaro is amongst Mexico’s quietest and most secure city facilities, one wherein a small-town colonial allure mixes with a contemporary city sprawl of commercial and financial exercise. That makes the violence that erupted within the metropolis’s soccer stadium so surprising.
“These horrible occasions outrage us, embarrass us and we deeply remorse them and commit us as an trade to work in order that we by no means expertise one thing comparable in any stadium,” De Luisa stated.
He and Arriola see themselves as reformers tasked with modernizing and cleansing up Mexican soccer and changing that type of speak into significant motion after years of inertia. In a rustic that has grown weary of violence, the riot in Querétaro has given them each the chance and the widespread public assist to just do that.
Greater than 33,000 individuals had been murdered in Mexico final yr, in accordance with a authorities tally. That’s greater than a 3rd greater that the murder rely within the U.S., which has 200 million extra individuals. And femicide, the homicide of ladies in gender-based violence, has greater than doubled in Mexico within the final six years.
A part of the nationwide dialogue that has resulted from Querétaro riot has put soccer violence inside these broader societal developments. Lowering violence within the stadium and eradicating the affect of drug cartels, whether or not actual or imagined, that the argument goes, may have constructive impacts elsewhere.
“Straight or not directly, everybody was concerned within the violence. And all of us need to pay at the very least a part of the value,” stated the fan who recognized himself as Alvaro.
“Everybody agrees this crossed the road. Now we’ve to vary soccer.”
Followers conflict throughout a Mexican soccer league match between Querétaro and Atlas at Corregidora stadium on March 5.
(Sergio Gonzalez / Related Press)
It has occurred earlier than.
Colombia’s speedy rise in world soccer within the Eighties and ‘90s was largely funded by the cartels, which anticipated to revenue from their largesse by playing closely on the staff. Because of this, the nationwide staff that went to the U.S. for the 1994 World Cup was underneath virtually insufferable stress.
When an personal aim by Andrés Escobar led to a loss and the staff’s elimination from the match, the favored defender paid for that mistake along with his life, a homicide that was later pinned on a cartel chief.
The nation and its followers discovered the plain lesson and drug traffickers had been pushed out of the game whereas banners with Escobar’s likeness had been unfurled at Colombian video games for years after his loss of life.
“Straight or not directly, everybody was concerned within the violence. And all of us need to pay at the very least a part of the value. Everybody agrees this crossed the road. Now we’ve to vary soccer.”
Alvaro, an Querétaro season ticket holder who declined to share his full identify out of concern
In Mexico, in the meantime, the Querétaro riot and its aftermath has created an area for wider discussions on different matters as properly. When town’s ladies’s staff, which had no position within the violence, was additionally ordered to play its video games in empty stadiums for a yr, Mariana Covarrubias, a author, activist and school instructor, launched a marketing campaign underneath the hashtag #equalpaynotequalblame to maneuver Mexico’s fledgling ladies’s league out from beneath the umbrella it shares with the boys’s Liga MX.
“We realized that the issue was deeper than the sanctions. The construction of the golf equipment that implies that though there are two leagues, the ladies’s is tied to the boys’s,” she stated.
Covarrubias, who didn’t contemplate herself a soccer fan two weeks in the past, now sees the game as a car for the modifications she believes are overdue.
“We weren’t that as a result of we weren’t serious about soccer,” she added. “However now we’re .”
Again at La Corregidora, which sits on a bluff overlooking the southern fringe of town, a pair of joggers padded quietly alongside the chain-link fence lining the parking tons Thursday evening as a bored watchman sat on a field exterior his guard shack, a pale blue facemask pulled beneath his nostril.
The one sound exterior the stadium got here from crickets and a heat wind whereas 120 miles away Querétaro’s “residence recreation,” moved to Morelia due to the Liga MX sanctions, was ending in 2-1 win.
Fittingly, two of the three objectives had been scored on penalties.
The NFL is down to its final eight teams and historically this weekend’s games are viewership powerhouses. Last year, the NFL’s divisional round, led by a mega-matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, averaged a whopping 40.0 million viewers, the highest audience number on record, dating to 1988. Kansas City’s win at Buffalo led the way with 50.4 million viewers, the most-watched divisional round game on record.
There are plenty of stories at The Athletic projecting what might happen this weekend. On the media front, Tom Brady will once again find the spotlight as Fox’s lead NFL analyst, but this week presents something that hits at the crux of Brady’s juggling between his analyst duties and minority ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Last week NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported that Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has been recruited by Brady to interview with the Raiders for the club’s head coach opening.
“Thanks in part to the involvement of Brady, who sources say personally vouched for Johnson and implored him to take the interview through his agent, Johnson spoke with them,” Rapoport wrote.
“Essentially, Brady recruited Johnson to interview.”
Rapoport also reported that “Brady was influential in the decision to fire (head coach Antonio) Pierce and (general manager Tom) Telesco, seeking alignment from him to the GM to the coach.”
(The Athletic’s Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed have essential additional reporting on the Raiders’ coaching and GM searches, both being informed — and influenced — by Brady.)
Lions OC Ben Johnson says he spoke with Tom Brady on the field before the Packers game. First time he’s met him.
Brady will be calling the Commanders-Lions game this weekend for Fox, while helping the Raiders find a new head coach and GM.
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) January 15, 2025
Fox is airing the Lions-Washington Commanders game Saturday (8 p.m. ET, also on Fox Deportes) with Kevin Burkhardt and Brady in the booth. There is no other NFL broadcast with this kind of working conflict, but we already knew that. The conflict has already been written about, including here several times, and as we have reported, Fox has no issues with it, given it is happy to be in the Tom Brady business.
But viewers deserve transparency at a minimum, and what Fox Sports should do out of respect for the audience is have Brady and Burkhardt discuss — on-air — that Brady has been part of the process involving Johnson.
I expect the broadcast to address it in some form (Fox Sports brass knows this is all out there, and its top NFL team has a lead producer and director who are immensely respected across the industry), but how deep they address it, we’ll see.
From my perspective, it should not simply be gloss over it with a 45-second discussion. If you are going to own the conflict, at least be transparent with the audience.
A substantive acknowledgment and discussion of what’s going on would help Brady with viewers who might naturally believe his recruitment of Johnson will have an impact on how he discusses the Lions.
Beyond Brady’s analysis of Johnson and the Lions, what will this year’s divisional round bring as far as viewer interest?
We bring back the Watchability Index for another week, which rates viewer anticipation as well as predicts expected viewership.
Josh Allen and the Bills were part of the most-watched NFL divisional round playoff game in 2024. His 2025 playoff matchup with Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson could top that. (Elsa / Getty Images)
Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills
6:30 p.m. ET Sunday
CBS, Paramount+
Watchability: 10 out of 10
Why it’s watchable: The NFL has always marketed its sport through the quarterbacks — Manning vs. Brady! — and this game has the two leading contenders for the league MVP honors — the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Buffalo’s Josh Allen. You can’t ask for more as far as entertainment if you are neutral.
The two teams ranked second (Bills) and third (Ravens) during the regular season. The Ravens are particularly lethal on the ground — they averaged 187.6 yards per game. Highmark Stadium is loud and cold, a perfect setting for football.
Everything about this game feels massive and it’s why the NFL placed it in its most optimum television window.
Odds: Ravens (-1)
Viewership prediction: 47 million viewers
Los Angeles Rams at Philadelphia Eagles
3 p.m. ET Sunday
NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Universo
Watchability ranking: 8 out of 10
Why it’s watchable: Hard not to embrace the Rams given the ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp are a collective force, and when Matthew Stafford is on, he’s fun to watch. L.A. looked like a juggernaut against the Minnesota Vikings with a postseason-record nine sacks.
The Eagles have the top-ranked defense (we’ll see how the loss of Nakobe Dean affects that), an all-time asset in Saquon Barkley and “Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life” working for them.
Lincoln Financial Field is a nightmare for opposing teams given Eagles fans are boisterous and belligerent. A late afternoon game in a great sports city. How can you not watch?
Odds: Eagles (-6)
Viewership prediction: 39 million viewers
Washington Commanders at Detroit Lions
8 p.m. ET Saturday
Fox, Fox Deportes
Watchability ranking: 7.5 out of 10
Why it’s watchable: The Athletic’s projection model gives the Lions a 24 percent chance to advance to the Super Bowl, the best percentage among all the remaining teams. The model has them scoring the most points over the weekend, which makes sense given they led the league in points scored (33.2 points) and were second in total yards per game (424.9 yards).
Detroit is fun to watch, it has an uber-aggressive coach and has an America’s Team feel to it given how many people seem to list it as their second favorite team.
It’s great to see the Commanders fans get this playoff run after all the years of living under the Dan Snyder regime. Jayden Daniels is a lock for Rookie of the Year and plays like a seasoned vet. Plus, how can you not love a doink to win a wild-card game?
Favorite: Lions (-9)
Viewership prediction: 35 million viewers
Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs
4:30 p.m. ET Saturday
ESPN/ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes
Watchability ranking: 5 out of 10
Why it’s watchable: Start with Patrick Mahomes, the standard-bearer for winning. The Chiefs have been the NFL’s viewership bell cow over the last couple of years (for good reason) given their excellence. (Taylor Swift probably helped juice the numbers, too.)
The weather is expected to be chilly and Arrowhead Stadium is chaotic when filled.
The Texans seem to live in the early Saturday afternoon slot, which tells you how the NFL broadcasting department sees them against other teams. Houston has the lowest expected points in our projection model, and the Chiefs’ starters have rested since Christmas Day.
Favorite: Chiefs -8
Viewership prediction: 34 million
(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
Sports
Ohio State's Will Howard vows to continue to 'trust in the Lord' even in the midst of life's highs and lows
Ohio State has looked dominant throughout the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
After knocking Tennessee out in the first round, the Buckeyes blew out the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals. Ohio State then defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinal to advance to Monday’s championship game.
Quarterback Will Howard will be under center when Ohio State meets Notre Dame in the highly-anticipated title game.
Howard spent four seasons at Kansas State. However, he entered the transfer portal in 2023. In Jan. 2024, he revealed his intentions to make the move to Ohio State. Howard went on to have the best regular season of his college career in Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, #18, leaves the field following the Cotton Bowl Classic College Football Playoff semifinal game against the Texas Longhorns at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 10, 2025. (Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
The 23-year-old has thrown for a career-high 3,779 yards and 33 touchdowns against 10 interceptions during his first year at Ohio State. Howard has also used his legs this season, rushing for seven scores.
EX-NOTRE DAME STAR FUELS NATIONAL TITLE GAME HYPE WITH HARSH CRITIQUE OF OHIO STATE’S WILL HOWARD
This year’s Buckeyes roster features multiple players, including Howard, who are outspoken about their personal faith. Howard’s on-field interview after Ohio State’s aforementioned commanding win over Oregon at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day was one of many moments in which the quarterback put his beliefs on full display.
“First and foremost, I gotta thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for giving me this opportunity to be on this stage in the Rose Bowl,” Howard said. “Younger me would be in awe right now.”
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, #18, passes against Texas during the second half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Shortly after the Buckeyes were upset by their top rival Michigan in late November, Howard referenced his faith as he was asked to share his reaction to the defeat.
“I sat back and thought the opportunity that I have here and what I’ve gone through this year, the ups and the downs, everything has been for my own good,” he said via Columbus news station WCMH, before reaffirming his unwavering faith. “I know that God is putting those obstacles in front of us to grow us and there’s a reason for it. I’m going to just trust the plan.”
Will Howard, #18 of the Ohio State Buckeyes, runs with the ball in the first quarter against the Indiana Hoosiers at Ohio Stadium on Nov. 23, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
He added that having an unshakable “trust in the Lord” has proven to be beneficial in his life.
“We got to trust in the Lord and lean on Him no matter what, through the ups and the downs,” he told NBC4. “I tried to just get into my Bible and pray a little bit. Just come back to the Lord and say, ‘I need You.’”
“When you come to Him in a humble way, it changes your perspective. I lay it down for Him and say, ‘God, I trust You. I don’t know why this happened but it happened for a reason. I’m going to trust it.’”
Howard and several of his Buckeyes teammates arrived at preseason workouts wearing “Jesus Won” T-shirts.
The College Football Playoff National Championship game kicks off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
When Patrick Vargas was a 5-foot-4 starting quarterback for Garfield High in 2008, the Bulldogs stunned City Section power Birmingham 29-28 in their season opener.
Now, at age 32, Vargas is taking over as Garfield’s new football coach, replacing Lorenzo Hernandez, and he’s embracing all the lessons learned about overcoming obstacles and understanding the tradition of excellence at Garfield.
“It’s a dream come true for me, being a kid from East L.A.,” he said. “Garfield has always been the place I wanted to be, first as a football player, then as a coach. What coach Hernandez did was change the program for the better. What I want to do is continue with that leadership and do my best to take it to the next level.”
He’s also going to inherit a new turf football field under construction. …
For the third straight year, Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura has been named the Gatorade state player of the year in girls cross country.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
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