It’s fairly common for soccer matches and sports contests of any kind to be suspended due to weather or natural disasters, but all of Argentina’s professional soccer games have been canceled on Friday for quite a more jarring reason – an assassination attempt on one of the nation’s leaders.
According to ESPN, the Argentinian Football Association is canceling all of its games on Friday after an assassination attempt on Argentinian vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
“The Argentinian Football Association expresses its strongest repudiation of what happened with vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,” the AFA said in a statement, according to ESPN. “We call on society as a whole, warning that violence of any kind is never the solution.”
The Argentinian vice president was attacked by a man on Thursday night when she arrived back at her home. A man emerged from a crowd, pointed a gun at her head from close range and pulled the trigger, but the weapon did not fire correctly.
In all, three matches were suspended on Friday: Patronato vs. Union, Rosario Central vs. Talleres and Lanus vs. Tigre.
While suspending soccer games due to an assassination attempt is certainly not a typical delay, it’s a very reasonable one, all things considered.
[ESPN]
