Soccer-Palmeiras get home ban and fine over dressing-room gas

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 27 (Reuters) - Palmeiras have been fined and given a home ban after the visiting team's dressing-room at their stadium filled with a mysterious gas during halftime at a game last month.

Visitors Sao Paulo were forced to flee the changing-room and hold their halftime team talk on the pitch during the Paulista championship semi-final, second leg on April 20.

They said their players could not breathe and that the gas was irritating to eyes and nostrils.

Palmeiras won the game 2-0 for a 3-2 aggregate win and went on to beat Ponte Preta in the final.

The Paulista Football Federation said on its Web site (www.futebolpaulista.com.br) that Palmeiras would be fined 10,000 reais ($6,024) and ordered to play their next two home games at an alternative venue.

The federation said that a police report had been unable to determine who was behind the incident but that Palmeiras were were responsible for the stadium. The substance has not been identified.

"The general consensus was that it was impossible to find the guilty party and, therefore, Palmeiras were punished as the host team," said the federation.

After the incident, Palmeiras officials denied they were responsible and implied that Sao Paulo may have sabotaged their own dressing-room to discredit the stadium.

The ban applies to the Paulista championship, the largest of the regional tournaments which kick off the Brazilian season, and will only take effect when next year's competition starts in 2009. (Reporting by Brian Homewood; editing by Rex Gowar)