Nacional plays behind closed doors Monday against Cali in Copa BetPlay round of 16, completing its third-match punishment

The Atanasio Girardot will be all but empty this Monday, September 7, starting at 8:15 p.m., when Atletico Nacional hosts Deportivo Cali in the round of 16 of the 2026 Copa BetPlay. It's a single-match tie: whoever wins moves on to the quarterfinals. But this time the story isn't the result, it's the stands: there won't be a single fan inside.

The reason goes back to the last time Nacional lifted a trophy. It happened on December 17, 2025, when the verdolagas beat, or really routed, Independiente Medellin 1-0 in the second leg of the 2025 Copa BetPlay final to claim the title. The celebration, though, spun out of control: there were riots, a pitch invasion by fans of both clubs, and an incident that ended up disrupting even the trophy ceremony.

Dimayor didn't stay quiet. On December 29, the Disciplinary Committee issued Resolution No. 134, handing down sanctions to both clubs involved. Nacional was hit with three matches without home advantage and a fine of $3,914,625. Medellin, for its part, received six matches of punishment and the same fine amount.

The last item on the bill

The match against Cali is, precisely, the third and final match of that sanction for Nacional. The first had already been served on July 21, when the team had to play against Tigres in that same Copa BetPlay at Estadio Cincuentenario, since it couldn't use the Atanasio. And as if that weren't enough, it turns out the club was already dealing with trouble on this front: just days before the final, it had received another sanction, this one for the use of fireworks in the first leg, which also included a partial stadium closure for a later match.

So this Monday closes the chapter. But playing without fans is no small thing for anyone, least of all for those who make a living from soccer without ever setting foot on the field. That's why Nacional launched the campaign "A fan base that never leaves", an invitation for supporters to gather around the Atanasio to back the team from outside, even if they can't watch it warm up from the stands. The idea also has an economic angle: when the stadium shuts down, vendors and street sellers in the area lose an entire day's worth of sales, and this campaign aims to soften that loss a little.

So on Monday, the noise won't come from inside the Atanasio, but from the streets around it. Inside, it will just be the players, the referee, and the silence of a stadium that, for one more night, is paying for something that happened nearly nine months ago.