Algerian side JS Kabylie were handed a stadium ban on Tuesday as initial punishment in response to the killing of their player Albert Ebosse by a missile thrown from the stands.
The sanction was agreed after a meeting between the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) and the north African nation’s professional league, announced the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The 24-year-old Cameroon forward was slain when a hail of missiles rained down from the stands as players left the pitch after a league match on Saturday at Kabylie’s home ground.
Last season’s top goalscorer was struck on the head and pronounced dead after he was rushed to a hospital at Tizi Ouzou, east of the capital Algiers.
CAf, on their website, reported: “After deliberations, the (FAF) Disciplinary Committee ruled on the first of a series of measures against JS Kabylie, in its capacity as hosts of the match held on Saturday (23 August 2014) at the 1 November 1954 Stadium in Tizi Ouzou.
“The Committee decided that the club will play their championship games outside the Tizi Ouzou province whilst the 1 November 1954 Stadium remains closed until the outcome of investigations.
“These are the first sanctions, pending the outcome of various investigations.
“FAF and the LFP will study the case in the coming days for sanctions whether nationally or internationally since JS Kabylie, after placing second in the league last season have qualified for the CAF Champions League.”
Ebosse died after being struck on the head by a ‘heavy blunt object that caused a hemorrhage’, the Tizi Ouzou state prosecutor confirmed late Monday.
“I have asked the police to use every legal means possible, including television images, to identify the culprit and bring him to justice,” his statement added.
“The police have also been instructed to investigate the circumstances in which the guilty person was able to obtain the rocks, or other objects, and then thrown them at the players.”
Ebosse’s death has sparked national revulsion in the proud football country with the attack coming following the Desert Foxes’ best ever World Cup campaign.
All this weekend’s league games have been called off in protest at the striker’s killing.