Colombian fans took a dead body to football match

A 17-year-old fan of Colombian side Cucuta Deportivo was shot dead while playing in a neighborhood park on Saturday -- allegedly by hired assassins. So on Sunday, his fellow members of the Barra del Indio fan group took a coffin supposedly filled with his corpse to the club's match against Envigado. Seriously.

Welcome to the hardcore world of South American football. From Colombia Reports:

After his wake, friends from "Barra del Indio" took the cadaver from the funeral home and paraded it around and then into the stadium in an attempt to pay homage to the slain soccer fan.

The medic for the soccer club, Julio Rivera, told the press, "They don't let in the "barras" (fanatics) but yes, a cadaver. This is the only part of the world where this has happened."

Colonel Alvaro Pico, a local police [official] said that the boy's death had nothing to do with his love for the soccer team rather it was a consequence of criminal actions in the area where he lived.

The event has generated controversy in Cucuta and stadium officials will hold a meeting to find out who permitted the entry of the cadaver and what punishment will be given.

Colonel Pico said they have identified some individuals who took the body from the funeral home.

Wow. So with that precedent set, the next time you taunt rival fans for having a stadium with the atmosphere of a morgue, be sure that it's not because their stands are filled with actual dead people.

Photo: Getty Images