CONMEBOL responded to Messi's claims
- OneOneNews
- Jul 7, 2019
- 2 min read
Barcelona star Lionel Messi blamed the CONMEBOL to be a corrupt and only favouring Brazil.
"Brazil champions? No doubt," Messi told reporters. "Sadly, I think it’s set up for Brazil."
"Hopefully the refs and VAR will have nothing to do with it and Peru will be able to compete because they have the team to do it. ‘But I see it as difficult."
CONMEBOL quickly responded to Messi's criticism of them. The South American football body released a statement:
"In football sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and accepting the outcome of a match with loyalty and respect is a fundamental pillar of fair play. Same goes to the refereeing decisions, that are human and will never be perfect."
"It's unacceptable that because of incidents proper to the competitions, where 12 Nations competed in, all in equal condition, there have been unfounded accusations that misrepresent the truth and put to judgement the integrity of Copa America."
"Said accusations represent a lack of respect for the competition, all the football players involved and the hundreds of professionals of CONMEBOL, institution that since 2016 has been tirelessly working to transparent, professionalize and develop South American football."
Gary Medel, surprisingly, didn't stay quiet about the incident and supported part of Lionel Messi's claims. He said:
“I agree with Messi, didn’t even think we’d get a yellow for it. There were a few shoves but that was it. The referee could’ve handled that a lot better."
Argentina secured the third-place of the 2019 Copa America after beating Chile 2-1, however, he and teammate Nicolas Otamendi didn't attend the medal ceremony with teammates, saying:
"I didn’t go to the podium because we shouldn’t be part of the corruption and lack of respect."
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