Michael Bradley Being Investigated by FIFA For Tunnel Incident
Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated is reporting this morning that FIFA has confirmed the rumor that has been swirling since last Wednesday’s historic US win over Spain, that Michael Bradley is being investigated by FIFA for a supposed confrontation in the tunnel.
A Spanish news source without a byline or sources cited, claimed that Bradley had verbally attacked referee Jorge Larrionda who had red-carded Bradley late in the game for a rather innocuous tackle on Xabi Alonso. The Spanish source also said Bradley tried to attack referee Larrionda in the tunnel.
Inside Minnesota Soccer has learned from several sources that US Soccer has been trying to keep the incident quiet until today when Wahl had the investigation confirmed by FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot.
According to Wahl, the FIFA spokesperson said in an e-mail, “FIFA is looking into the matter and cross-checking all available evidence. Therefore, for the moment, we are not in a position to confirm the nature of the incident.”
The SI article also said that Larrionda filed a match report after the game, which is required of FIFA if an incident like that takes place. FIFA said, because they are investigating the incident they cannot comment on the specifics.
If the American midfielder and head coach’s son does receive additional game suspensions, they could be served for Gold Cup games even though Bradley is not rostered for those games. This would mean that Bradley would still be available for the World Cup qualifier against Mexico on August 12.
Larrionda is a referee from Uruguay who the US has had issues with in the past. He refereed the U.S. World Cup 2006 game against Italy where he sent off two US players and one Italian. Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope were both sent off on debatable red cards.
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