This should have been about the football, but Chankas Vs Alianza Lima has already been dragged into the kind of off-field dispute that makes everyone look smaller. Alianza Lima have filed a complaint after the club from Andahuaylas barred their fans from entering the stadium one day before the match, and the timing could hardly be more combustible given the final stretch of the Torneo Clausura.
The immediate trigger is clear enough. Before the match in Andahuaylas, the host club shut the door on visiting supporters, and that decision prompted Alianza Lima to make its case. Tito Ordóñez then used his digital platforms to publicly denounce the measure, making sure the issue did not stay buried in private correspondence. Once a club starts policing the atmosphere in this way, it should not be shocked when the backlash arrives quickly and loudly.
A complaint that goes beyond the stands
There is also a wider layer to this than a simple dispute over ticket allocation. Pablo Guede is travelling to Andahuaylas even though he has been sanctioned after his heated exchange with Hernán Barcos in Alianza Lima’s last match against Sporting Cristal. That alone gives this trip an awkward edge. A suspended coach should not become the story, but here we are: his presence, or even his ability to engage with the match properly, is part of the debate.
That is the part the host club should have understood before things reached this point. If the complaint is about security, then the concern is not cosmetic. It is about whether the visiting delegation can operate normally, whether communication is being hindered, and whether the match is being framed by unnecessary tension before a ball has even been kicked. In a decisive phase of the Torneo Clausura, that is a poor look for everyone involved.
To be clear, Alianza Lima are not complaining about nothing. They are reacting to a decision that directly affects their support and potentially the conditions around the trip itself. And when a match already carries the weight of a sanction, a public dispute, and a hostile backdrop in Andahuaylas, the organisers have already failed the first test: keeping the football at the centre of the night.
Instead, Chankas Vs Alianza Lima has become another reminder that some clubs seem determined to turn ordinary fixtures into unnecessary distractions. The football should still matter most. Right now, it is having to fight for attention.
