Nunez banned for five games over Copa America incidents

Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez has been banned for five matches and fined by South American confederation CONMEBOL after his role in a mass brawl in the Copa America semi-final.
Four other players have been suspended, with 11 sanctioned overall, as a result of the investigation into the violence at the end of the clash between Uruguay and Colombia in Charlotte. Nunez was among the players who waded into the stands at the Bank of America Stadium and exchanged punches with fighting fans during a chaotic end to the game.
The forward’s punishment was the most severe of those handed out with the others given four matches or less along with fines.
Midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, who plays in England for Tottenham, was suspended for four matches, defender Mathias Olivera, Ronald Araujo and Jose Maria Gimenez all barred for three matches. Nunez was fined $20,000 with the other players receiving fines ranging from $16,000 to $5,000. Six other players received only fines.
In addition, the Uruguayan Football Federation were fined $20,000 with the amount to be deducted from revenue and prize money. Uruguay central defender Gimenez said players had leapt into the melee out of concern for the safety of family members and loved ones watching the game in that section of the ground.
The punishments are open to appeal but CONMEBOL statement did not state when the suspensions, which cover games organised by CONMEBOL and not domestic competitions, would begin. Uruguay are scheduled to play a friendly against Guatemala in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Sunday and then head into World Cup qualifiers at home to Paraguay on September 6 and away to Venezuela on September 10. Colombia won the game 1-0 but lost the final to Argentina.

Uruguayan footballer dies after collapsing mid-game in Brazil
Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo of the Nacional club died in Brazil on Tuesday, five days after collapsing from a heart attack during a match against Sao Paolo, his team announced.
The 27-year-old collapsed in the 84th minute of a match for a place in the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious club tournament in Latin America. He was taken by ambulance to the Albert Einstein Hospital, where physicians said he suffered “cardiac arrest of undetermined onset, secondary to an arrhythmia.”
Izquierdo, who was sedated and on a ventilator, later suffered “a progression of brain involvement and an increase in intracranial pressure,” the hospital said.
“With the deepest pain and shock in our hearts, the Club Nacional de Football announces the death of our beloved player Juan Izquierdo,” Nacional wrote on the social network X, in a message accompanied by a black and white photograph of the athlete.
Izquierdo’s wife Selena gave birth to his second child a week ago. On Monday it emerged that the player had been diagnosed with “a small arrhythmia” a decade ago during routine check-ups of youth teams, according to the director of the National Sports Secretariat, Sebastian Bauza.
Club president Alejandro Balbi said Izquierdo “had never shown any cardiac episode” during examinations at the club, which he joined in January this year. Izquierdo was born in Montevideo in 1991 and began his career in 2017, playing in several first-division Uruguayan clubs. He also played for Atletico San Luis in Mexico.