There are few things more satisfying to watch than a good sports brawl, but two soccer teams in Brazil may have pushed the envelope a bit too far on Sunday. A local league match between Gama and Brasiliense was suspended in the 40th minute due to a giant brawl between players, fans, and, eventually, military police.
The match was interrupted at 1-1 when a Brasiliense player collided with a Gama defender, leading to heated words between the two sides. That escalated quickly into a benches-clearing (to borrow a term from baseball) fight between both clubs that was further escalated by fans jumping the fences surrounding the field.
Take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5uVGrIyKuQ
Things really get out of hand when one brave Gama fan ran across the field and tried to rip a Brasiliense banner out from the supporters’ section of the rival team. Other fans took that as a sign that they should bum-rush the field, and everything went to hell from there. Eventually, military police arrived on the scene, which sparked a mass evacuation by fans not on the field. As you can see in the video below from Ball Street, the police fired off tear gas and hoses before clashing with supporters in the tunnels.
The match was postponed, as expected, but as of now, there have been no announcements regarding punishments for either side. Fans that rushed the field were allowed to leave without any arrests. As for the banner that seemed to kick this into overdrive? Well, it sure looks like the enterprising fans that went for it were able to get it out of the stadium, proving once and for all that soccer fans will go to any lengths in order to disrespect their rivals.