TSoccer's Copa America tournament in the United States this summer has been characterized by intense, physical competition on the field, but while six yellow cards and one red card were handed out in Wednesday night's semifinal, it was the action off the field that ended up drawing the most attention.
A sea of yellow filled Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Colombia's fans far outnumbered the blue-clad fans of their rivals, Uruguay. But tensions quickly rose to a fever pitch in the 90°F, humid air as the final whistle blew, Uruguay out and Colombia advancing to the final.
Footage of the incident, which quickly circulated on social media, showed opposing fans punching each other and throwing drinks at each other, and Uruguayan players, including Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez and Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo, taking to the stands to join the brawl.
Nunez was seen punching the Colombian fan multiple times as his teammates tried to restrain him before the referee separated the teams.
The brawl in the stands followed a brief scuffle between players on the pitch in a tense match in which favourites Uruguay lost 0-1 to Colombia, despite playing alone for much of the second half after Colombia's Daniel Muñoz was sent off for elbowing an opponent. Colombia now extend their unbeaten run to 28 games and will next face Lionel Messi's Argentina in Miami for the South American title.
After the brawl died down, Uruguay captain Jose Maria Jimenez told reporters that his teammates had acted in response to a group of Colombian fans attacking the families of Uruguayan players who were seated near the touchline. “They attacked our whole family,” Jimenez said, complaining that official security had not intervened. “It's a catastrophe. Our families are in danger. We had to get up in the stands as quickly as possible to save our loved ones.”
Ignacio Alonso, president of the Uruguayan Football Association, reiterated this explanation to reporters after the match: “The Uruguayan players had an instinctive and natural reaction to protect women, parents, closest family members and children who were suffering an attack on their siblings in that area of the stadium. And it was an instinctively natural reaction as fathers and it made a lot of sense given the events that surrounded them.”
ESPN commentator and former U.S. national team player Hercules Gomez echoed the Uruguayan's frustrations in a post on X, calling the lack of security at the stadium “dangerously pathetic” and sharing footage of Nunez comforting his young son after the altercation.
CONMEBOL, The South American soccer body that organises the Copa America condemned the violence in a statement, saying fans should channel their passion into their support and that there is “no place for intolerance and violence on or off the field”.
