Report: Man Burns Down His Friend's House Over Argentine Soccer Rivalry

The rivalry between Boca Juniors and River Plate, the two biggest clubs in Argentine soccer, is dubbed the Superclásico. This “Super” qualifier isn’t meant to imply that the game’s quality is typically better than Spain’s more heralded Clásico. Instead, it’s a reference to the fans, who are super-charged, super-passionate, super-fucking-insane. And that’s what leads to one guy allegedly setting his buddy’s house on fire.

This story took place in last Sunday afternoon in the city of Apóstoles, on the heels of Boca’s and River’s qualification for the final of the Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent to the Champions League. As local paper El Territorio tells it, Oscar B. had been staying at the home of his friend and former brother-in-law Arturo V.’s place for a couple weeks. The two pals were over at another pal’s house hanging out, when the subject of the Copa final came up.

Oscar and Arturo got to arguing about which team was better. The exchange got so heated that Oscar left the friend’s house in a huff, saying that he was going to return to Arturo’s house, gather his belongings, and leave. Minutes later, some neighbors caught up with Arturo and informed him that his house was on fire, and that someone had seen Oscar fleeing the place right before the flames became visible.

Arturo returned to his house at once and saw that his wooden home was indeed engulfed in flames. He then called to notify the authorities as neighbors tried to help put the fire out. When the cops arrived and asked Arturo if he had any idea what could’ve inspired this, Arturo mentioned that he had just gotten into an argument “on soccer issues” with his brother-in-law. As the police later put it in a statement, “He was arguing which of the two [clubs] is the best and set the fire.”

No one was hurt in the blaze, though the report says almost all of Arturo’s belongings were consumed in the flames. Here’s a picture of the house after the fire was put out:

As of Monday, Oscar was still on the lam, though police told El Territorio that they believed his capture to be imminent. Thus comes only the latest of countless other mindless acts of violence and destruction by Argentina’s insane soccer fans.

[ El Territorio | El Territorio]