On Friday, the Chicago Fire issued a statement where it said it was banning the Sector Latino supporters group who sat in the Southwest corner of Toyota Park.
“Recently, members of the supporter group Sector Latino Chicago committed repeated violations of this Code. Despite providing the group’s leadership with multiple opportunities to correct or eliminate such misbehavior, serious violations continued, including after being given a final warning.
Although not all members were involved, the number of violations by certain group members – including some of the group’s leadership and the unwillingness or inability of the leadership to prevent further violations – left no alternative: Sector Latino Chicago is no longer recognized as a designated supporter group by Chicago Fire Soccer Club, meaning all its supporter privileges are permanently revoked.
By and large, Fire supporter groups and those across the League exhibit great passion in constructive ways including the use of Tifo, instruments, songs and chants. However, membership in a supporter group may never be allowed to cloak the identity of those who threaten fan safety or choose belligerence, profanity, vulgarity, incivility or even violence.” — Club statement
This whole episode started on June 2nd when Sector Latino was issued a
“final warning” over what the club called “multiple incidents involving physical violence” and cited a specific incident on
May 20th after the home match in Houston where Sector Latino supports clashed with Houston Dynamo supporters in which a video was shown during a meeting prior to the June 2nd match against San Jose.
During that San Jose match, a smoke bomb was cited by Major League Soccer’s Stadium Security Administrator and resulted in Sector Latino’s tickets and privileges being revoked as well as all other season tickets in Section 101 which the club said at the time was necessitated due to lack of positive identity of the culprits.
Sector Latino had until June 13th to file a written appeal and a hearing would be conducted prior to
this Saturday’s home match against New York City FC to review final evidence. ProSoccerUSA’s Danny Santaromita
reported on Friday that the group lost its appeal.
Section 8 Chicago issued a statement on Friday night in response to the banning of Sector Latino:
“We will forgo organized support for tomorrow’s game in solidarity with #Free101. The ethos of collective punishment shown this year goes against the long-standing spirit of collaboration between this club and its supporters. The ISA remains committed to working with both Sector Latino and the Front Office to reinstate season ticket holders to section 101 and seeking out a conversation to determine better ways to ensure the fan code of conduct is adhered to. In light of this, we are withholding organized support from home matches, pending the reinstatement of 101.” — Section 8 Board statement
Kickoff for the Fire’s match against NYCFC is at 7:00pm on Saturday.
