After winning the Peruvian league title, Universitario Deportes planned to celebrate their record-extending 27th league title at their city rivals’ stadium, Alianza Lima. However, the stadium was soon turned dark which prevented the award ceremony from going ahead.
The incident was labeled as both disgraceful and dangerous by Universitario, who had secured the victory with a 2-0 win over Alianza on Wednesday, leading to a 3-1 aggregate victory. They called for sanctions to be imposed on Alianza Lima due to the incident.
“We call on the authorities to punish those responsible,” Universitario said in a statement.
“A sporting celebration should not be tarnished by disgraceful events. “Our players, staff and entourage were exposed to danger in the derby… The lights were turned off to prevent the award ceremony, and during the blackout, Alianza Lima’s staff tried to attack members of our team who were celebrating the victory”.
In addition to this, the club added that the award ceremony will be held at their home Monumental U stadium on Sunday. Alianza said they had turned off the lights “to encourage the rapid evacuation of the stands and preserve the safety of the public and the teams”.
“Alianza Lima is an institution that respects the sporting spirit and always aims to provide safe entertainment for fans, athletes and sports professionals,” the 25-time champions said.
“We understand that this measure may have been interpreted in different ways, but the club’s only motivation was to avoid unfortunate situations … We regret any inconvenience caused to spectators and fans in general.”
Unreal shithousary in Peru, winning the league at your main rivals so they turn the lights off straight away to stop the celebrations.pic.twitter.com/fWrl5Gvrdd
— Will Brazier (@willbrazier) November 9, 2023
