CONMEBOL moves Boca Juniors, River Plate clash to Madrids Bernabeu
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while conmebol initially insisted the match would go ahead the two sides presidents agreed to postpone the second leg for 24 hours1 real madrids santiago bernabeu stadium will now host on 9 december the twice postponed final leg superclasico between argentine rivals boca juniors and river plate1 originally scheduled for last weekend at rivers monumental stadium in buenos aires it was postponed after some boca players were injured when their team bus came under attack from their arch rivals fans throwing projectiles1 boca appealed to conmebols independent disciplinary committee to be awarded the trophy and have river expelled from the competition but that was also rejected on thursday1 instead conmebol hit river with a two-game stadium closure that will be applied from 2019 in official continental competitions and a 400000 fine1 conmebol president alejandro dominguez said in a press conference in asuncion the paraguayan capital that real president florentino perez had offered use of the bernabeu for free1 madrid is the city with the biggest argentine population in the world outside argentina said dominguez1 its the 10th safest city in the world it has the airport with the greatest connectivity and its a city with a football tradition1 he added that fans of both teams would be admitted to the bernabeu something that was not the case for the original clash1 away fans have been barred from stadiums in argentina since 2013 due to football-related violence that has seen more than 300 people killed in the last 50 years according to one charity1 dominguez had a message to the hooligans known as barrabravas in argentina should they be thinking off attending the match1 the barras should not even dream of going. there is no place for them1 im sure the message that the fans are going to send is what the world is waiting for that the good guys are going to win this time1 several boca players suffered cuts from broken glass and the effects of smoke inhalation following the bus attack on saturday1 south american footballs governing body conmebol confirmed this on thursday night1 but a day later boca refused to play again insisting they would be disadvantaged and the match was indefinitely postponed1 on monday boca petitioned conmebol to be awarded the victory but a day later the governing body said the match would go ahead outside argentina1 the buenos aires rivals drew their first leg in early november at bocas iconic bombonera arena 2-21 madrid double1 the choice of the bernabeu means that both the copa libertadores and champions league finals will be played in madrid within six months of each other1 the final of europes premier club competition will be played at the home of reals own city rivals atletico madrid the wanda metropolitano on june 11 several cities and stadiums had been vying to host the prestigious all-argentine final clash dubbed a superclasico and the most important club encounter in the countrys history1 possible venues ranged from genoa in italy to asuncion and even qatars capital doha1 but madrid won out with spain prime minister pedro sanchez tweeting that the country is ready to organise the final1 he said spain has ample experience in such events and is already working on the necessary deployment to guarantee the security of the event1 the bernabeu has a capacity of more than 80000 seats1 spains national statistics institute says there are 72000 argentines living legally in the european country1 river and boca are the two most popular teams in argentina allegedly commanding between them 70 percent of the countrys football fans1 they have won the copa libertadores nine times between them. while boca have won the title twice as many times river held it aloft most recently in 20151