Chile calls for suspension of referee for match against Canada in official complaint about refereeing performance at Copa America

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The Chilean Football Federation (FFC) has filed a formal complaint with CONMEBOL regarding the refereeing performance during the Copa America match against Canada.

In the complaint, the association expressed its “deepest anger and dismay” at the refereeing decisions in the goalless draw with Canada at the Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando on Saturday night and criticized all three of Chile’s Copa America matches. Saturday’s result meant Chile’s elimination from the Copa America in the group stage.

Chile has called for the suspension of Wilmar Roldan, the referee of the match against Canada, in a letter from FFC General Secretary Jorge Yunge Williams. The letter also lists several examples of alleged “questionable decisions” by referees in their matches during the tournament, including against Peru and Argentina.

The decisions in these two games – which ended 0-0 and lost 0-1 respectively – “directly damaged our team’s participation and continuity in the championship in question,” writes the FFC.

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Chile cites an incident during the match against Peru in which the main referee, Wilton Sampaio, was “extremely lenient” towards the opposing team and failed to punish a number of fouls. Chile claims that one of Argentina’s goals against Argentina was scored when a player involved in the match was offside. Chile contested a penalty that was not punished by referee Andres Matonte in that match.

Chile’s main complaint was against an alleged “lack of impartiality” shown by Roldan in both previous matches and on Saturday against Canada. The letter goes on to point to previous Chile matches that Roldan has refereed and the “absolute lack of impartiality” that the Colombian allegedly showed. Chile cites as alleged proof of this the fact that they have won only one of nine matches that Roldan has refereed.

Chile also said it requested Roldan’s suspension following a 2021 Copa America match against Paraguay, during which the team said it was denied a clear penalty in a 2-0 loss, but the request was later rejected.

The red card given to Gabriel Suazo against Canada was the focus of Chile’s complaint (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

The FFC has now demanded that Roldan be “implied with an indefinite and definitive suspension and/or, failing that, the maximum penalty”. It has also requested copies of all VAR audio recordings from the entire match against Canada. Some of this audio recording has since been published overnight by the Chilean media, raising even more questions about the refereeing decisions.

Pablo Milad, the president of the FFC, spoke to a group of reporters after the goalless draw with Canada that resulted in the South American nation being eliminated in the group stages of the Copa America for the first time in decades.

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He was particularly troubled by the second yellow card that Gabriel Suazo received in the 27th minute, which meant that Chile had to play with a 10-man squad for most of the game.

“I don’t want to talk about transparency and CONMEBOL,” said Milad. “I have a good relationship (with the organization) and I have a lot of evidence that there is much more transparency compared to before. Today there is absolute transparency in terms of money and all that.”

“We just need to improve situations like this (refereeing). You leave (the tournament) with that taste in your mouth and you know you were biased. If that hadn’t been the case, we would have qualified. There should be no question about that.”

“It should be clear and you don’t have to look at the referees and wonder whether they made the right decision or not, or look at the video evidence to see if it was the right decision. That’s what hurts so much.”

Jorge Yunge’s letter cites Roldan’s failure to send off Canadian Moise Bombito early in Saturday’s match as the main errors, as well as the second yellow card shown to Suazo. Chile’s formal complaint is directed at Roldan and his refereeing team.

“Chile has been arbitrarily excluded from the 2024 Copa America,” the letter concludes.

CONMEBOL did not comment when asked about The athlete. Copa America organizers later released some VAR audio recordings of the match against Canada, admitting that it was a refereeing error not to send Bombito off so early in the game.

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(Top photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)