Chile is calling for the referee to be suspended from the match in Canada as part of a formal complaint about Copa America officiating

The Chilean Football Federation (FFC) has filed an official complaint with CONMEBOL regarding the referee’s conduct during the Copa America match against Canada.

In the complaint, the association described its “deepest irritation and dismay” over refereeing decisions during Saturday night’s goalless draw with Canada at the Inter & Co stadium in Orlando, and raised the issue with all three of Chile’s Copa America matches. Saturday’s result saw them eliminated from the Copa America in the group stage.

In a letter sent by FFC secretary general Jorge Yunge Williams, Chile called for the suspension of Wilmar Roldan, the referee of the match in Canada. The letter also listed several examples of allegedly “questionable decisions” by referees during matches at the tournament, including against Peru and Argentina.

The decisions taken in these two matches – in which they drew 0-0 and lost 1-0 respectively – “directly damaged our team’s participation in its continuity in the aforementioned championship,” writes FFC.

Chile recounted an incident during the match against Peru when the referee, Wilton Sampaio, was “extremely lenient” towards the opposing team and, they say, allowed a series of fouls to go unmentioned. Chile claims that one of Argentina’s goals was scored when a player involved was offside. They did not agree to a penalty which, in their opinion, was disregarded in this match by the referee, Andres Matonte.

Chile’s main complaint was about the perceived “lack of impartiality” that Roldan had shown in both previous matches and Saturday’s match against Canada. The letter goes on to refer to Chile’s previous matches that Roldan had managed and the “absolute lack of impartiality” that the Colombian had allegedly shown. Chile claims that they have only won one of the nine matches Roldan has managed as alleged evidence.

Chile also said they had requested a suspension for Roldan following their 2021 Copa America match against Paraguay, in which they claimed a clear penalty was not awarded during their 2-0 loss. That request was later rejected.

The FFC has now demanded that Roldan “be sanctioned with an indefinite and final suspension, or failing that, the maximum sanction in force”. They have also requested copies of all VAR footage from the entire match against Canada. Some of this footage was later released by Chilean media overnight, raising even more questions about refereeing decisions.

FFC president Pablo Milad addressed a group of reporters after a goalless draw with Canada that saw the South American nation exit the Copa America at the group stage for the first time in decades.

He had a particular problem with a second yellow card for Gabriel Suazo in the 27th minute, which resulted in Chile playing with a 10-man squad for most of the match.

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

“We just need to improve these situations (refereeing). You leave (the tournament) with a taste in your mouth, knowing you were prejudiced. If they hadn’t done that, we would have qualified. There shouldn’t be any questions.

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

Jorge Yunge’s letter points to Roldan’s failure to send off Canada’s Moise Bombito at the start of Saturday’s match and the second yellow card shown to Suazo as key errors. The formal complaint filed by Chile concerns Roldan and his refereeing team.

“Chile has been arbitrarily eliminated from Copa America 2024,” the letter concluded.

CONMEBOL did not comment on the matter when approached AthleteCopa America organizers later released part of the VAR footage from the match against Canada, in which they admitted that the referee’s error was in not sending off Bombito at the beginning of the match.

(Top photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)