The coach of Uruguay, Marcelo Bielsarejected this Friday the possibility of sanctions to footballers of the Celeste for a brawl in the stands at the end of the semifinal lost against Colombia by the America Cup after their relatives were attacked.
“The United States, when it felt that its interests were being attacked, created FIFAgate, with the FBI, they did what they did, but it was for their own interests. Nothing happened here, nothing happened here: the fields, this was an extraordinary party, full stadiums, competitiveness, refereeing, there is nothing to complain about.”Bielsa said ironically when questioning the organization.
“In a country that was capable of FIFAgate, now it turns out that the blame has to be placed on the players,” he complained, visibly upset, at the press conference prior to Saturday’s third-place match between Uruguay and Canada at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
FIFAgate uncovered a corruption scandal in 2015 involving top officials in world football, including those from the then board of directors of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, for which several of them were prosecuted, most of them in the United States.
Conmebol announced on Thursday that it had opened a disciplinary file to establish “responsibilities” for the incident, calling it “unacceptable.”
The body responsible for organizing the Copa América did not provide further details, but it was revealed that a dozen Uruguayan footballers are under investigation, with the possibility of sanctions ahead of Uruguay’s matches against Paraguay and Venezuela in September in the resumption of South American qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“This is all a witch hunt. ‘No, well, look, we’re going to sanction them and we’re going to sanction them so they comply in the match for third place’ and now ‘no, not anymore for third place, because there’s too much public repercussion, so we’re going to have to think about the qualifiers’. A disgrace, a disgrace! In a country that, as an organizer, has responsibility.”Bielsa said, visibly angry.
“The players reacted as any human being would,” said the Argentine coach.
“If you see that there is a process to prevent what happened from happening, if you see that there is a process to mitigate it, that is, an escape route, and both things do not happen and they are attacking your wife, your mother, a baby, your wife, your sister, what do you do? Are you going to punish those who went to defend them?” he stressed.
The Uruguayan players reported that their relatives were attacked by Colombian supporters at the end of the match.
Bielsa also criticised the poor condition of the playing fields and training pitches at the Copa América.
“I rebel! (…) because one acts out of fear, because one is constantly threatened. So, I’m tired.”declared the Uruguay coach.
“They don’t say: ‘I’ll give you a perfect pitch’. They say: ‘I’ll give you a pitch that’s already been installed’. And the unions don’t close!” (…). “The training pitches were a disaster!” he argued.
Other coaches such as Lionel Scaloni criticised the state of the pitch in their matches in the continental cup.
“Scaloni was told: ‘You’ve already spoken once, don’t speak again, otherwise we’ll pay the consequences’. And he himself said it,” Bielsa commented on the matter.
Returning to the semi-final brawl, Bielsa said that instead of sanctioning the organisers, they should apologise to the players for what happened.
“Apologize, man. Why are you going to suspend us, if all you have to do is say: we made such mistakes, we are responsible, we take responsibility, and that’s it.”declared the Celeste helmsman.
“In the United States, you enter a person’s home and the right to protection exists, proportionately. Uruguayan soccer leaders prevent you from entering where they are and it turns out that they have to leave the country so they don’t go to jail, but where has this been seen?”
Bielsa said: “This has nothing to do with the players, the players were forced to do this. The sanction is not for the players, but for those who forced them to act the way they did. They had no choice, they were left without a choice.”
Source: Ambito
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