Argentina: Football matches cancelled as players go on strike

The Argentine Football Association has postponed two top division matches that were due to take place on Friday following the collapse of negotiations to call off a players' strike.

Many clubs are facing a major financial crisis and have not paid salaries for several months.

The footballers' union says the strike will go on until the players received what they are owed.

The strike involves players of more than 200 Argentine clubs.

The two matches postponed were Rosario Central v Godoy Cruz, in the city of Rosario, and San Lorenzo v Belgrano, in Buenos Aires.

The crisis began after senior officials at the Football Association (AFA) were implicated in a corruption scandal involving television broadcasting rights.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionActing Football Association Armando Perez says clubs who refuse to play will face sanctions

The season should have resumed a month ago after the summer recess.

But the crisis led the AFA to delay the start until this Friday.

'Number one conspirator'

To try to avoid the strike, the government of Mauricio Macri made a $22m (£18m) payment on Thursday to the Argentine Football Association.

The money was owed as compensation for the cancellation of a contract with the government, which held the broadcasting rights until this year.

But the players' union says the money is not enough.

They said most club presidents had spent and borrowed more money than they should have.

Image copyrightAP

Image captionThe AFA's former head, Luis Segura, stood down after he was charged with fraud in June 2016

The death in 2014 of Julio Grondona, who was president of the Argentine Football Association for 35 years, triggered the crisis.

He was also vice-president of Fifa, the world football's governing body.

The United States authorities who investigated corruption at Fifa labelled Mr Grondona "the number one conspirator".

But analysts in Argentina say he guaranteed the functionality of Argentine football.

Many believe, however, that his absence will allow a perhaps tortuous but necessary clean-up of the game, says the BBC's Daniel Pardo in Buenos Aires.

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El Salvador hippo Gustavito 'did not die from knife attack

A post-mortem examination on a hippopotamus at the National Zoo of El Salvador has found that it did not die as a result of a stabbing attack, officials say.

The zoo earlier reported that the much-loved hippo, Gustavito, had been stabbed and beaten by unknown assailants.

But prosecutors, who found no sign of puncture wounds, said it was likely the hippo died as a result of poor care.

Gustavito, 15, died late on Sunday.

A detailed examination showed that the animal had apparently died of a pulmonary haemorrhage, or bleeding from the lung, state prosecutor Mario Salazar said.

Earlier reports that Gustavito had been brutally attacked caused international outrage and the alleged incident was described by officials as cowardly and inhumane.

Police later questioned employees of the zoo to try to establish who could have entered the premises to carry out such an attack.

None of the CCTV cameras at the zoo overlook Gustavito's enclosure.

Culture Minister Silvia Elena Regalado said the result of the post-mortem examination did not rule out an attack on the hippo, which she said could have died from the resulting stress.

Following the death, zoo director Vladlen Hernandez said he did not believe employees were involved in any attack and added that the zoo had received no threats from any of El Salvador's feared street gangs.

Mr Hernandez later said that Gustavito had been buried "straight away" because he wanted Salvadoreans to remember the hippo the way he used to be - eating fruit or swimming in his pool.

Image copyrightAP

Image captionA screengrab from a 2014 video shows Gustavito being fed

Last Saturday, the zookeepers noticed Gustavito acting strangely, refusing to eat and unwilling to come out of the pool in his enclosure.

The zoo's veterinarians then reportedly found lacerations on the hippo's neck and face, and the animal clearly in great distress.

His condition worsened on Sunday and he died late that night despite the efforts of the staff to save him.

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