Boca get three-match home ban after riot

Boca Juniors have been given a three-match home ban in the Libertadores Cup after a crowd riot halted their quarter-final second leg tie at home to Guadalajara in June.

The South American Football Confederation (CSF) also fined the Argentine club $20,000, banned striker Martin Palermo for three matches and Jorge Benitez, the Boca coach at the time, for four games.

Benitez, who resigned the next day, was also fined $10,000 after television pictures showed him spitting at Guadalajara striker Adolfo Bautista, who was also sent off and given a two-match ban which he has already served.

The Boca ban will not take effect at least until 2007 as they have no chance of qualifying for next year's Libertadores.

Boca, trailing 4-0 from the first leg, had attempted to unsettle their Mexican opponents with late tackles and non-stop provocation from the start of the game at the Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires.

The CSF took no action over the trouble-hit semi-final between Sao Paulo of Brazil and River Plate of Argentina, or the second leg of the final when Sao Paulo hosted fellow Brazilians Atletico Paranaense.