SAO PAULO — The Copa Libertadores game between Diego Maradona’s former club Boca Juniors and Brazil’s Internacional was postponed Wednesday after the death of the Argentina great.
South America’s governing soccer body CONMEBOL said the decision was made because of Maradona’s "close connection with the Argentine club."
Maradona played for Boca between 1981-82 and returned in 1995 to see out the last years of his career there.
The first leg of the round-of-16 game in Porto Alegre, in Southern Brazil, will instead be played on Dec. 2.
Maradona’s spokesman, Sebastian Sanchi, said the former World Cup winner died Wednesday of a heart attack, two weeks after being released from a hospital in Buenos Aires following brain surgery.
CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said on social media that Maradona’s achievements "will live forever in our memory."
[relatedlinks]
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.