Some Toronto FC fans went fucking buckwild tonight during their Canadian Championship semifinal match against the Ottawa Fury. The most passionate part of Toronto’s supporters section—where dudes start chants and others wave ridiculously large flags—ignited a casual fire, burning the flags they were waving and possibly each other in the process. This particular Fury FC fan was none too pleased with the proceedings:


Calling the cops here isn’t as bad as calling the cops for setting a hard screen in a pickup basketball game, but it might be close.

Here are some more angles of the fire, some of which appears to have spread to the field:


Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney apologized for the “embarrassing scene” in his postgame interview. I’m not sure who exactly cares about the Canadian Championship enough to risk third-degree burns, but hey, I’m just an idiot American, so what do I know?

Update (10:16 a.m. ET): The following is a statement from Ottawa Fury FC:

There was an incident at TD Place this evening during the Canadian Championship Semi-final match between Ottawa Fury FC and Toronto FC of the MLS. Members of the TFC supporters group smuggled a small quantity of fireworks into the stadium and ignited them during the second half of the match. The fireworks flared and boomed for a short time and were quickly extinguished by TD Place security. No fans were inju red in the incident and the perpetrators were ejected from the building. Upon seeing smoke and fire, which appeared to be more serious than they were, fans in other parts of the stadium notified Ottawa Police and Ottawa Fire that an incident had occurred and emergency services quickly responded. Upon arrival they confirmed the incident had been resolved and returned to their respective stations. All members of the visiting supporters group had been subjected to bag checks and security scans prior to entering the stadium and no fireworks or other devices were detected. TFC has apologized for the behavior of the members of the supporters group responsible for igniting the fireworks. Ottawa Police have launched an investigation into the incident. Public safety is of paramount importance and TD Place will review this incident and security policies to determine how they might be modified to prevent such incidents in the future.




