Corinthians officials have kept a low profile and opted to "wait on the report about what ocurred" when they wre consulted about a possible sanction after a Bolivian fan, Kevin Beltran, 13, was killed in Jesus Bermudez de Oruro Stadium. The young man died after being hit by a firecracker that was launched by a Corinthians fan in the 1-1 draw against San Jose in Group 5 of the Copa Libertadores.
The sanction against Corinthians could be drastic. Depending on how CONMEBOL judges the case, there exists the possibility that the defending Cup champion be excluded from the Continental competition.
After almost 97 years without having an organism to discipline and punish clubs and players, the CONMEBOL created the Disciplineary Tribune and Appeal Court in 2012, motivated by the incidents which took place in the final between Sao Paolo and Tigre in the Copa Sudamericana. Both entities are in charge of interpreting the Disciplinary Code, which came into effect in this edition of the Libertadores.
In this code, article 11 talks about sanctions for inadequate fan conduct including field invasions, launching pyrotechnic objects, among other tings. Bolivian police has already arrested 12 fans that launched objects during the match.
Article 18, which details the punishment, talks about fines (up to 100,000 dollars), anulling or repeating games, the loss of points, banning stadiums and even exclusion from the competition (current or future editions).
