It was the final day of the season over in Brazil yesterday, and the Brazilians decided to celebrate this the only way they know how – by going completely and utterly crazy and kicking the crap out of each other, so badly that some of them actually died.

The match in questions sounds like it was horrendously organised and that is probably the reason that the violence was allowed to occur and get so out of hand. It was between Vasco Da Gama – who needed to win to avoid being relegated to the second tier of the Brazilian championship –  and Atletico Paranaense – who themselves needed to win in order to qualify the Copa Libertadores.

Due to previous incidents in fixtures such as this Atletico decided that the match would be played at a neutral venue and moved it to Jonnville, but this was probably the biggest mistake they’ve ever made. Because of this change, it meant that security was handled by a private firm and not the police, and it looks like they couldn’t handle anything at all because after Atletico scored there was a huge brawl with the Vasco fans attacking and generally beating the shit out of the Atletico fans.

It looks like pure carnage in these pictures/videos and incidents like these – the most disturbing of which is probably unconscious men being kicked in the head by a rival fan – only serve to lead to more questions about whether or not Brazil are actually fit to hold the World Cup next summer. You’ve got to think that with stuff like this going on seemingly all the time – and the fact that half the stadiums aren’t even finished – that the answer is no, but I’m sure that isn’t going to stop people from all over the world heading over there next summer (including me).

The match was immediately stopped following this riot, and most of the Vasco players looked visibly upset and distressed by the scenes. Eventually the riot stopped and fans that were injured were airlifted out of the stadium by a helicopter that landed on the pitch. After about one hour of stoppages the game resumed but Vasco were visibly shaken by it and ended up being beaten 5-1 and getting relegated to second division. Interestingly, Fluminese – who were last season’s champions – also joined them, which really goes to show how weird and backwards that whole league is.

There’s a bunch of pictures below and then some videos of it all on the next page.

☛ More Brazilian Riots: Brazilian Under 13 Match Descends Into Mass Riot