Losing Peruvian soccer squad allegedly poisons other team, blames it on chicken

Diego Maradona would be proud of Peruvian soccer squad Sport Ancash’s attempts at climbing out from a 3-0 deficit against their far superior opponent Hijos de Acosvinchos by having an equipment manager stroll out with some poisoned sports drinks in a last gasp attempt to “play to win the game.” Though four of their opponents ended up passing out cold, which leads me to believe their team is so bad they can’t even beat a team that’s passed out. You think my (winless) recreational soccer team with Dan Levy can take a pass at them? From SB Nation:

With five minutes to go before the final whistle, Hijos de Acosvinchos defenseman Andy Salinas suddenly collapsed in the middle of the field and was quickly attended to by team physicians. Immediately after play resumed, two of Salinas’ teammates — Luis Coelho and Martin Reategui — suffered the same fate and lost consciousness without warning. Although he managed to stay lucid, a fourth player, Juan Luna, also became ill as a result of drinking the tainted water. “I don’t remember who gave me the drink, but it wasn’t sweet, it had a bitter taste to it,” Luna said

Video following the jump.

Sorry, no subtitles.

“From what I remember… the goalie from the other team was being treated for an injury… Someone from the their (Sport Ancash) coaching staff, it must have been the equipment manager, the physical therapist or maybe the water boy, stepped onto the field and we shared drinks,” Salinas told Peruvian TV show A Primera Hora.

Doctors at a local hospital ran a series of tests that found traces of benzodiazepine — a psychoactive drug with sedative properties — in the player’s bloodstream.

With some explaining to do, Sport Ancash’s president decided that the most logical course of action was to use the worst explanation ever by trying to pin the blame on the other team’s pregame meal. When all else fails, blame it on the chicken.

Sport Ancash President José Mallaqui blamed the incident on poultry.

“I was able to find out that the players ate rotisserie chicken and had some energy drinks before the game, which ended up hurting them,” he told generaccion.com.

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Peruvian Club Takes Page Out Of Argentina’s World Cup 1990 Playbook, Tries ‘Drug Our Opponents’ Water’ Trick [SBNation]
Peruvian soccer players collapse during game after allegedly being drugged by opposing team [New York Daily News]