Uruguayan Football President breaks silence on Darwin Nunez and players' brawl with fans

The President of the Uruguayan Football Association has spoken out following the mass brawl involving his country’s players - including Darwin Nunez - at the Copa America.

Liverpool’s Nunez was involved in the ugly scenes following Uruguay’s defeat to Colombia in Charlotte, North Carolina. The fight broke out as players’ families were moved onto the pitch for safety.

Nunez led a group of Uruguay players into the crowd, where they were involved in a mass brawl with supporters. Footage shared on social media shows the Liverpool striker being punched by Colombia fans after climbing into the stands.

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AUF president Ignacio Alonso has now addressed the incident, and defended his players for their reaction.

"The Uruguayan players had an instinctive, natural reaction, which was to defend the children who were being attacked, their wives, parents, siblings. It was a natural, instinctive reaction that was rational given the events that were taking place," Alonso said (via ESPN).

"We were in a box, where we had some attacks and we protected some children, opening the area to some kids who were scared and having some crises, but fundamentally what is worrying is what happened down on the field, where there was more diligence in repairs than in precaution. They quickly followed the evacuation protocol and we were able to resolve the situation, not without some inconvenience that you all saw.

"We are analyzing the images. There is no one who is currently in difficulty and measures were taken so that they could receive transport in appropriate places.

“Assistance was provided to those who had panic attacks, and now we are going to review them a little more at the hotel. In all tournaments, families are in the stands, there is usually a cordon or something similar, especially for a stadium that was 95% sold out before the start of the cup.”

Nunez was seen comforting his son and family on the pitch following the incident, while Luis Diaz and Luis Suarez also consoled the Reds star. Nunez is yet to comment on the brawl publicly, with CONMEBOL, South America’s governing body, set to conduct a thorough review before the Copa America final on Sunday.

Colombia will face Argentina in the final, with Diaz going up against another of his Liverpool teammates in Alexis Mac Allister. Before that, Uruguay will be back in action in the third-place playoff against Canada.