Banished Chile players accuse Borghi of lying
Reuters - Thursday 10 November 2011, 21:58
Chile coach Claudio Borghi
faced a new problem on Thursday when the five players he kicked
out of his World Cup qualifying squad for indiscipline accused
him of lying.
The five returned late and drunk from an evening off during
preparations for Chile's South American qualifiers against
Uruguay on Friday and Paraguay next week, Borghi said on
Wednesday.
Winger Jean Beausejour, reading from a statement by the five
including midfielders Arturo Vidal, Jorge Valdivia and Carlos
Carmona and defender Gonzalo Jara, said: "We did arrive back
about 40 minutes late... a situation which is not right and for
which we publicly apologise.
"We're not denying we took alcohol, because we were at a
religious ceremony [baptism of one of Valdivia's children]
common in our country. But Mr Borghi's assertion that we arrived
in an inexcusable and inadequate state is not right."
Valdivia, Carmona, Beausejour and Jara held a news
conference which was not attended by Vidal, who had returned to
his club Juventus in Italy.
"We're extremely upset that Mr Claudio Borghi should make
assertions like those he made," the players said.
"We cannot accept the remarks of Claudio Borghi that we got
back in an inexcusable state. That's totally false. I feel quite
hurt by Claudio's big lie yesterday," Valdivia added.
'NO STATE'
Borghi, who travelled to Montevideo on Thursday for the
Uruguay match with his squad including five replacements, had
said: "They were in no state to defend themselves."
Winger Beausejour added that Borghi, Chile's second
successive Argentine coach after Marcelo Bielsa, refused to
speak with the five players.
Chilean Football Association president Sergio Jadue asked
for cautionary sanctions for the five players.
It is not the first time Valdivia and Beausejour have been
reported as behaving badly. Media reported before Chile's match
against Argentina in Buenos Aires last month that the pair had
been warned for indiscipline although Borghi denied it.
Valdivia was punished for his part in an act of indiscipline
by seven players at the Copa America in Venezuela in 2007. They
were suspended for 20 international matches for being drunk and
molesting a hotel maid. Five of the seven, including Valdivia,
later had their suspensions reduced by half.
In 2006, Mark Gonzalez and Reinaldo Navia, who was also
involved in the 2007 incident, were found with drink and women
in a Dublin hotel during a Chile tour.
Chile, who lost their opening qualifier 4-1 to Argentina
last month before bouncing back to beat Peru 4-2 at home, host
Paraguay in Santiago on Tuesday.