Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa lashes out at Copa America organisers, saying it was ‘not professional’

Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa on Friday slammed Copa America organisers, saying the tournament was “not professional” and criticising security and pitch conditions in the United States.

Bielsa’s comments came after a number of his Uruguay players clashed with fans in the stands at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, following their semi-final defeat to Colombia. Scuffles broke out in an area where the players’ families, including some children, were sitting.

CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation that has chosen to host the Copa America in the United States for the second time, has launched an investigation into the incident.

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Asked ahead of Uruguay’s third-place play-off against Canada, which takes place at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night, if he feared his players would face sanctions, Bielsa, 68, reacted visibly angrily.

Darwin Nunez consoles himself on the pitch after the ugly scenes following Uruguay’s elimination (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

“All I can tell you is that the players reacted as any other human being would,” he said. “When you see that there is a process in place to prevent what happened from happening. When you see that if what happened does happen, and there is supposedly another process — an escape hatch, let’s say — and both of those things fail, and you see your wife, or your mother, or a baby, being attacked, what would you do? You would wonder, are they going to punish the people who defended themselves?

“If you had any sympathy at all, you would ask me if the players received an apology from those responsible for the care of every spectator.

“You ask me if I am afraid of sanctions? How can I be afraid of a sanction that should be impossible.”

He then turned his attention to the state of the pitches during the tournament, which came in for much criticism from players and managers.

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After Brazil’s 1-1 draw with Colombia, Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior said: “The Copa America is always difficult because of the pitches, because of the referees who are always against us. It is always difficult, but we have to stay strong. We can only talk by winning. If we talk, CONMEBOL says we talk too much.”

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also criticized the grass field after his team’s opening night win over Canada in Atlanta, Georgia, saying the Mercedes-Benz Stadium pitch was “not good for spectacle” and “not up to par for these players.” He later refused to answer repeated questions on the subject, saying it was “finished.”

“All the lies they’ve told,” Bielsa said. “They hold press conferences and say ‘no, the pitches are perfect, the training pitches are perfect’… I have all the photos that show that these are all lies. This is a plague of liars. Now I’ve said everything I promised (to the organisers and the federation). I wouldn’t say it. These are all punishments that are coming.

Bielsa was visibly lively (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

“These are all known mistakes,” he continued. “The North Americans don’t say, ‘You’re going to get a perfect field.’ They say, ‘We’re going to give you a field that was installed three days ago, or (x) number of days ago.’ … The training fields were a disaster.

“They hold a press conference and say it’s an optical illusion. Vinicius (Junior) can’t see. That (Lionel) Scaloni can’t talk. That the training pitches are all perfect when we all have a collection of the (bad pitches).”

The Uruguay coach then referred to the 2015 FBI investigation that led to the downfall of Sepp Blatter, the former president of international football’s governing body FIFA, and a host of other executives in football.

“The United States, I remind you, when they felt that their interests were being attacked, they created FIFAGate. Together with the FBI. They did what they did, but it was for their own interests. Here? Nothing happened. This was a fantastic party, a competitive tournament, there is nothing to complain about.”

CONMEBOL has been asked for comment.

AUF, the Uruguayan Football Federation, said in a statement on Friday that its representatives had conducted themselves in an “exemplary manner” throughout the tournament.

Regarding the semi-final incidents, the AUF said that its players, in the “context of moments of nervousness and desperation in which women and children were being held hostage”, took to the stands “to intercede for their protection and defence”.

“It is clear that this event took place in a context where the number of Uruguayan fans was very small, mainly families, and there were not sufficient security mechanisms for such a situation,” the AUF said. “Given these events and the aforementioned lack of security, the players’ attitude was inevitable and natural.”

The AUF added: “Unfortunately, the events described, which have violated the health of the family in a context of lack of protection, have provoked an unjustified but humanly understandable reaction.”

(Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images)