Match suspended in Paraguay after keeper hit by stone

ASUNCION: Paraguay’s league season got off to a sorry start when Guarani’s match was suspended before kickoff because the home side’s goalkeeper was hit by a stone thrown from the visiting Cerro Porteno sector in the crowd.

The Paraguayan Football Association (APF) said on Monday it would rule this week on the incident in which Guarani’s Uruguayan keeper Pablo Aurrecochea was the victim, needing two stitches in a deep head wound and unable to take the field.

“We’re waiting for the referee’s report. The disciplinary tribunal must rule on the incident,” a APF spokesman said.

Guarani are claiming the points while Cerro Porteno, unhappy with referee Ulises Mereles’s decision to suspend Sunday’s match at the Feliciano Cceres Stadium in the city of Luque, want it rescheduled.

It was the second violent incident in Paraguayan football in January after Cerro Porteno hooligans rioted at a South American Libertadores Cup preliminary match against Venezuela’s Deportivo Petare last Thursday.

Cerro are claiming Guarani, whose team had walked off urging Mereles to suspended the match, were looking to get back at them over the controversial transfer of key Argentine-born midfielder Jonathan Fabbro, who went to court to obtain his release from Guarani to join Cerro this season.