Marcelo Bielsa hits out at Copa America organizers, says it ‘has not been professional’

Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa lashed out against Copa America organizers on Friday, saying the tournament “has not been professional” as he criticized the 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 by Colombia. Altercations broke out in an area where players’ families, including some children, were seated.

CONMEBOL, the South American football federation which has opted to hold Copa America in the United States for the second time, has opened an investigation into the incident.

When asked ahead of Uruguay’s third-place playoff against Canada — which will take place back at the Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night — whether he feared his players would face sanctions, Bielsa, 68, became visibly upset.

Darwin Nunez is consoled on the pitch after ugly scenes followed Uruguay’s exit (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

“The only thing I can tell you is that the players reacted like any other human being would,” he said. “If you see that there’s a process to keep what happened from happening. If you see that if what happened happens anyways, and that there’s supposedly another process — an escape hatch, let’s say — and both things fail, and you see your woman, or your mother, or a baby, being attacked, what would you do? You’d ask whether they’re going to punish the people who defended themselves?

“What you should be asking me, if you had a minimum amount of sympathy, is if the players have received an apology for those who are responsible for caring for every single spectator.

“You’re asking me if I’m scared of sanctions? How am I going to be afraid of a sanction that should be impossible to even happen.”

He next turned his focus to the conditions of the pitches at the tournament, which have been widely criticized by 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 always go against us. It’s always difficult, but we have to stay strong. We can only talk by winning. When we talk, CONMEBOL says we talk too much.”

Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni also criticized the turf after his side’s opening night win over Canada in Atlanta, Georgia, saying the Mercedes-Benz Stadium pitch was “not good for spectacle” and “not up to standard for these players”. He later repeatedly declined to answer questions on the topic, saying it was “done”.

“All of the lies that they’ve told,” said Bielsa. “They do press conferences and say ‘no, the fields 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 already said everything I promised (organizers and the federation) I wouldn’t say. These are all punishments coming.

Bielsa was visibly animated (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

“These are all errors that were known beforehand,” he continued. “The North Americans don’t say — ‘you’re going to get a perfect pitch.’ They tell you ‘we’ll give you a field installed three days ago, or (x) amount of days ago.’ … The training pitches were a disaster.

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

The Uruguay head coach then referenced the 2015 FBI case that led to the fall of Sepp Blatter, the former president of soccer’s world governing body FIFA, and a host of other soccer administrators.

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

CONMEBOL has been approached for comment.

AUF, the Uruguayan football federation, released a statement on Friday to say their representatives had behaved in an “exemplary manner” throughout the tournament.

Of the semi-final incidents, the AUF said its players, in the “context of moments of nervousness and desperation in which women and children were held hostage”, went into the stands “to intercede for their protection and defense”.

“It is clear that this event occurred in a context in which the proportion of Uruguayan fans was very small, mostly 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 violated the health of family in a context of lack of protection, generated an unjustified but humanly understandable reaction.”

(Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images)