Lizzy Becherano
Jul 12, 2024, 4:59 PM ET
Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa defended his players’ involvement in clashes with Colombia fans following their Copa América semifinal match at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, before criticizing the U.S. and CONMEBOL over the organization of the competition.
Following Uruguay’s semifinal loss, players could be seen climbing into the stands to fight with opposing fans. Darwin Nunez and Ronaldo Araujo were among those involved, while captain Jose Maria Gimenez said the players were simply trying to defend family members.
South America soccer’s governing body, CONMEBOL, has announced an investigation into the incidents, which also saw players from Colombia and Uruguay involved in a confrontation on the field after the final whistle.
“One has to speak thinking about all the threats he will receive if he speaks,” an angry Bielsa said in a prematch news conference on Friday. “So, the only thing I can tell you is that the players reacted the same way any human being would.
“If you see what happened happen and there’s [no other process to escape] and they are attacking their girlfriends, their mothers, a baby, their wives, their mothers — what would you do?”
The former Leeds United manager went on to attack media coverage of the incidents.
“Are you asking if there’s going to be sanctions to the ones that went to defend?” he said. “It’s a level of complicity, because the questions also act as a way to accomplice, I don’t know if all of you think the same way, if the question you ask wouldn’t be made by someone else, but this is what you journalists should be saying, not what I should be saying, with the risk of opening my mouth.
“When you see that there’s an overreaction, when you see a violent action, of course no one is going to be in favor of a violent reaction. But the first thing you have to see is what are they reacting to? And if there was any other way to do it differently, and you all know this, but you want us on this side to open our mouths about it so it’s not you who point what happened and then are affected in any way.”
Bielsa said that his players were owed apologies, adding that “we are in the United States, the country of security.”
The Uruguayan football association (AUF) also said there was a lack of security in the stands which led to “an unjustified but humanly understandable reaction” by the players.
“This event took place in a context in which the proportion of Uruguayan fans was very small. Most of them were families, and there were insufficient security measures in place,” the AUF said in a statement.
“Given these facts, the players’ behaviour was inevitable and natural,” it said, adding though that it “strongly condemned” their aggression.
The coach went on to criticize CONMEBOL and the U.S. over the organization of the tournament, specifically calling out the lack of security and the conditions of the fields at stadiums regularly used by NFL teams.
Argentinawhich will face Colombia in Sunday’s final, slammed the conditions of the field at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the tournament’s opening game.
“They knew seven months ago that we’d play here and they changed the field two days ago,” Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni said following that game. “It’s not an excuse, but this isn’t a good field. Sincerely, the field is not apt for these players.”
CONMEBOL defended the conditions of the fields following the criticism, saying that the process of installing the temporary pitches for Copa América started a year ago and that “aesthetics can give the wrong perception.”
Eight of the stadiums used for the Copa América are sites of the 2026 World Cup, and renovations have been planned allowing for the larger fields in two years. For the World Cup, FIFA usually takes control of the stadiums about a month in advance.
“They’ve said that the pitches are in perfect condition and all the lies they have said here, doing a press conference to say that the pitches are perfect and you see how the grass patches won’t work. And they said the training facilities are perfect, but Bolivia couldn’t train and I have pictures to prove that it’s all lies, this is a plague of liars,” Bielsa added.
“And then we speak — even if I already said everything I promised myself I wouldn’t say — and there are threats. Scaloni spoke once, he dared to say that the union on the grass wasn’t proper, which are all known mistakes.
“The Americans won’t tell you, ‘I’ll give you a perfect pitch,'” Bielsa continued. “They’ll tell you, ‘I’ll give you a pitch put together three days ago,’ and the joints between grass patches don’t fit together.
“Look for a play on yesterday’s game inside the box and you’ll see how the ball double-taps and it’s because of that. And the training facilities were a disaster and Bolivia couldn’t train but they said, ‘It’s fine, it’s Bolivia.’
“Then the penalty for Brazil and all the injustices with the lower classes of the competition, they say nothing about that. And then you get the referees being accused by the president of the federation saying they didn’t call a penalty for Brazil knowing how that conditions the next game, you know how this all is.”
Uruguay is set to play the match for third place against Canada at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.