River Plate’s 2018 Copa Libertadores title confirmed by CAS

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — River Plate was finally confirmed as the 2018 Copa Libertadores champion by a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday.

The court dismissed an appeal request by city rival Boca Juniors to be awarded the title because of the crowd violence which stopped the scheduled second-leg game from being played in Buenos Aires in November 2018.

Boca players were injured when River fans attacked the team bus near the Monumental Stadium.

South American soccer body CONMEBOL organized the game in Madrid two weeks later. River won 3-1 to complete a 5-3 victory on aggregate.

“The CAS panel found that while River Plate had violated the CONMEBOL disciplinary regulations it could not order the disqualification of River Plate from the 2018 Copa Libertadores since such sanction would have been excessive in the circumstances of the case,” the court said.

However, the court said Boca’s appeal was partially upheld. River was forced to play two home games in this year’s Copa Libertadores competition in an empty stadium.