CONMEBOL on Wednesday announced sanctions for the players involved in the incident that broke out after the 2024 Copa América semifinal between Colombia and Uruguay.
Following Colombia’s 1-0 victory on July 10, several Uruguay players and staff climbed into stands to confront fans, with CONMEBOL launching a probe into the matter in the days that followed.
Players could be seen engaging in physical violence with Colombian supporters, with videos later emerging of Liverpool player Darwin Núñez attempting to throw a chair into the crowd.
Nuñez has been handed a five-game suspension and fined $20,000 and is now set to miss his country’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was issued a four-game suspension and fined $16,000, while José María Giménez, Mathías Olivera and Ronald Araújo each received a three-game ban and fined $12,000.
Six players, who played a lesser role in the incident, received a $5,000 fine: Matías Viña, Sebastián Cáceres, Brian Rodríguez, Emiliano Martínez, Santiago Mele and Facundo Pellistri.
The Uruguayan federation as a whole was fined $20,000, while an official of the organization, Marcelo Garcia, was banned from all CONMEBOL competitions for six months after being seen throwing a water bottle at fans from his suite at Bank of America Stadium.
Head coach Marcelo Bielsa defended his team’s actions at the time, reiterating that players were merely acting in self-defense and attempting to guard family members.
“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?”