Colombia Officials Cancel Soccer Season
Colombia canceled the remainder of its soccer season following the murder of a referee after a game last week in the violent, drug-plagued city of Medellin.
The Colombia Football Federation, known as Dimayor, announced it would cut the season short “because of the gravity of problems plaguing Colombian soccer and the impossibility of solving them immediately.”
Dimayor made the move after Manuel Francisco Bercerra, the country’s minister of education, said he would not allow soccer teams to rent public stadiums because of the threat of violence.
He made his announcement after four unidentified gunmen shot and killed the referee, Alvaro Ortega, in a Medellin hotel Wednesday, just hours after he had finished officiating a game.
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