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Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images
The punishment will keep Nuñez out of Uruguay’s next five matches but will not impact him with Liverpool at the club level.
It’s taken a month and a half, but CONMEBOL has finally meted out punishment for the brawl that took place in the Copa America semi-final between Uruguay and Colombia early in July that saw Uruguayan players and officials entering the stands to fight opposition fans they believed were targeting their families in the crowd.
Liverpool’s Darwin Nuñez, perhaps unsurprisingly, has been given the stiffest penalty for being at the forefront of the charge into the stands and for trying to throw a folding steel chair at fans. The striker will miss five games including a friendly against Guatemala, World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Venezuela in September, and qualifiers against Peru and Ecuador in October.
Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur will miss four games. He was seen throwing at least two water bottles filled with ice or frozen water into the stands, including one that impacted a Uruguayan staffer leaving him bloodied and dazed. Napoli’s Mathias Olivera, Barcelona’s Ronald Araújo, and Atletico Madrid’s Jose Gimenez will miss three.
Nuñez can count himself fortunate that a stadium security guard grabbed his arm as he attempted to throw the chair at fans, deflecting its trajectory and leading it to impact a barrier wall, likely saving him from a much more significant punishment. The suspensions will not impact the players at club level.
