Uruguay blames FIFA for World Cup journey chaos as flight to U.S. delayed a number of hours

Complications with Uruguay’s flight to the United States for his or her World Cup opener imply they won’t arrive within the nation till round 24 hours earlier than the sport — and the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) has blamed FIFA for the problems.

Uruguay are set to face Saudi Arabia of their first group-stage match in Miami on Monday at 6pm ET. However, the flight that the Uruguayan delegation was scheduled to board from Cancún, Mexico was not licensed to enter the U.S., in response to a number of studies in Uruguay.

A second aircraft was then commissioned to take the squad to South Florida. AUF launched the next assertion on Sunday: “Due to problems beyond the control of the AUF, the departure from Mexico has been delayed. The squad is resting at the hotel. The new departure time set by FIFA is 4.15pm.”

When The Athletic requested an AUF spokesperson if the delays had been FIFA’s fault, the spokesperson responded, “Correct.” FIFA didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

On Sunday, AUF’s official X account shared former Uruguay striker Diego Forlan’s message in 2010, by which he bemoaned the truth that the nationwide group’s constitution flight had been delayed an hour someday earlier than its first World Cup sport. “Who is to blame???,” Forlan wrote, adopted by “Arriba Uruguay!!”

Uruguay held a coaching session on Sunday morning in Cancún. Head coach Marcelo Bielsa and central defender Jose Maria Gimenez had been scheduled to talk to reporters in Miami at 6.45pm native time. That information convention has been rescheduled for 8pm. If it doesn’t happen, the AUF may discover itself sanctioned by FIFA.

During the 2024 Conmebol Copa América, Bielsa mentioned the event, which was held within the U.S., had not been professionally organized. He referred to Conmebol as “a plague of liars.” “They do press conferences and say ‘No, the fields are perfect, the training pitches are perfect.’… I have all the photos that show that these are all lies.”

“The United States, Bielsa continued, “I’ll remind you, when they felt their interests were being attacked, they created FIFAGate. With the FBI. They did what they did, but it was for their interests. Here? Nothing happened. This was a fantastic party, a competitive tournament, there’s nothing to complain about.”