BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- River Plate have been confirmed as the 2018 Copa Libertadores champions after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) quashed an appeal by their defeated rivals Boca Juniors.
Boca had requested that River be disqualified because of crowd violence that forced the final's second leg to be postponed and then shifted from Buenos Aires to Spanish capital Madrid.
Several Boca players were injured when their team bus was attacked by River Plate fans when it made its way to the stadium for the final's second leg.
The match was shifted to Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu two weeks later, with River winning 3-1 to secure a 5-3 aggregate victory.
Having had an original appeal rejected by South American football governing body CONMEBOL, Boca took their case to the CAS in late December 2018.
However sport's highest court ruled that while River breached CONMEBOL guidelines, they could not be stripped of the Copa Libertadores title.
Instead, the CAS ordered that River play their next two Copa Libertadores matches behind closed doors.
"The CAS panel found that while River Plate had violated the CONMEBOL disciplinary regulations it could not order the disqualification of River Plate from the 2018 Copa Libertadores since such sanction would have been excessive in the circumstances of the case," a CAS statement read.
