Uruguay Football Federation Defends Players Who Clashe With Colombian Fans

Uruguay's players clashed with Colombian fans in the semifinals of the 2024 Copa America (Instagram/@aufoficial).

JAKARTA - The Uruguay Football Federation (AUF) also opened its voice regarding the riots after the 2024 Copa America semifinal match between Uruguay vs Colombia.

Uruguay regrets the slow intervention from the security forces. In fact, the position of La Celeste players and the player's family is in danger.

As is known, the riots involved Uruguay players and Colombia supporters. When the match took place, the supporters of both teams clashed.

However, the chaos spread to the point of threatening the area containing the player's family. After the match, some Uruguayan players tried to save their families, but they were intercepted by Colombian supporters who made the beatings inevitable.

The riots subsided as soon as the security forces arrived to intervene. The Uruguayan players and their families were also arrested.

AUF defended the actions of Uruguayan players who tried to save their families. They condemned the violence of Colombian supporters and the slow intervention of the 2024 Copa America organizers security team.

"The players reacted ethically to what is natural, namely defending and protecting the children in the stands, the women being attacked, the wives, father, son, and brother who were there."

"It's a father's instinctal response. It's a natural reaction that happens with a lot of logic given what's going on around them," said AUF President Ignacio Alonso Labat.

Some of the names of players who received the spotlight were Darwin Nunez, Ronald Araujo, and captain Jose Mari Gimenez.

The three of them appeared to be involved in a fight with Colombia supporters.

However, what they did was considered reasonable because they were worried about the fate of the family trapped in the riots.

In fact, captain Gimenez expressed disappointment over the poor security in the 2024 Copa America.

"Let me say something before they cut you because they don't allow us to talk through the microphone."

"They don't want me to say anything about what happened, but this is a disaster," said Gimenez.

"Please be careful, our family is in the stands, there are small babies who have just been born. It was a disaster. There were no police and we had to defend our families."

"It was the fault of two or three people who drank too much (alcohol) and didn't know how to drink," said the captain again.

In addition to the riots, the atmosphere had heated up between the staff and the players of the two teams as soon as the final whistle sounded.

However, the confrontation did not take place due to clashes between Colombian supporters and Uruguayan players.

"I thought the incident ended in an argument in midfield. When I saw it happened, I went to the dressing room."

"I think they thank the fans for their support. However, then I found out that unfortunately there were some problems there," said Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa.

Apart from that, Colombia managed to advance to the 2024 Copa America final after overthrowing Uruguay with a narrow score of 1-0. Jefferson Lerma scored Los Cafeteros' winning goal.

Colombia will next face Argentina in the top party on July 15, 2024.