(Reuters) – Canada head coach Jesse Marsch criticised the treatment North American sides have received at Copa America, claiming his team has been treated like second-class citizens.
Debutants Canada have received 14 yellow cards in the tournament, including one for Marsch himself during their 2-0 loss to Argentina in Tuesday’s semi-final.
“The yellow card per foul rate is way higher for every CONCACAF team,” Marsch told reporters in North Carolina on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s third-place play-off match against Uruguay.
Several Uruguay players clashed with opposition fans after their 1-0 loss to Colombia in the semis. Uruguay says players’ family members had been assaulted by Colombians in the stands.
Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa was outraged after South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL, who organised the Copa, opened an investigation into Uruguay and accused it of failing to protect the families.
“Certainly we wouldn’t want any player’s families to be put in harm’s way. But I know if our team responded like this, that there would be heavy sanctions,” Marsch said about the incident.
“We’ve had our players head-butted, we’ve had racial slurs thrown at our players live and through social media… We’ve been treated like second-class citizens.”
Marsch complimented his players for maintaining their focus throughout the tournament.
“They’ve never berated referees, never rolled around on the ground like children looking for calls and yellows from referees,” he said.
“We’re going to go out again in another tough match against a really good opponent and know that there’s going to be many things going against us.”
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
