Darwin Núñez banned 5 games for Uruguay’s Copa América brawl

Liverpool striker Darwin Núñez will serve a five-game international suspension as part of punishments handed out by South America’s governing body CONMEBOL on Wednesday, following incidents at  Uruguay’s  Copa América semifinal against Colombia last month.

Nuñez, one of five Uruguay players to be given a suspension, will now miss his country’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador. He was also fined $20,000. Domestic games are not included in the bans so Nuñez’s participation with Liverpool will not be affected.

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.

Following Colombia’s 1-0 victory in Charlotte, North Carolina, 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 at Bank of America Stadium, with videos later emerging of Núñez attempting to throw a chair into the crowd.

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?”