Lionel Messi blamed his comments made last week criticizing the officiating after Argentina's loss to Brazil for his red card in the third-place match against Chile.
“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," said Messi.
Argentina won the match 2-1. Messi received the second red card of his career.
Conmebol responded to Messi's accusations.
“These accusations represent a lack of respect for the competition, all the participating players and the hundreds of professionals of Conmebol, an institution that since 2016 has been working tirelessly to make transparent, professionalize and develop South American football," released the federation in a statement.