Argentina forward, Lionel Messi, have said that the Argentine team were treated unfairly at the Copa America and boycotted the medal ceremony to protest the refereeing and corruption.
Messi was sent off towards the end of the first half of Saturday’s third-place play-off against Peru following a confrontation with midfielder Gary Medel, who was also shown a red card.
The Argentina captain suggested he had been singled out following his comments over the crazy officiating in the wake of their 2-0 semi-final defeat by hosts Brazil in Belo Horizonte.
He said “We don’t need to be part of the corruption that we’ve suffered at this tournament, Medel is always right at the limit. With a yellow that would have been the end of it for both of us, but well, maybe what I said recently had an impact. What’s important is that the team finished well in the tournament. Maybe this was ordered and I ended up suffering because of what I said.”