A confrontation involving players, coaches and Toronto Police Service officers at Wednesday night’s soccer game between Toronto FC and Club America is under investigation by CONCACAF.
Brent Latham, CONCACAF’s head of media, said on Wednesday if the governing body for soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean finds any of the players or coaches involved broke CONCACAF rules, the matter will be passed along to its discipline committee for further action.
“At this point, we are still gathering information,” Latham said by telephone from CONCACAF’s headquarters in Miami. “We have been in touch with the Toronto police and they told us no report or complaint was filed [about the incident] so at this point they are not investigating.”
This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Toronto police.
The incident occurred at halftime of a CONCACAF Champions League game between the Mexican team Club America and TFC at BMO Field. It was an intense, physical game played in a driving rainstorm, and TFC won 3-1. After the game, Club America head coach Miguel Herrera accused two Toronto police officers of assaulting three team members: goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin, defender Bruno Valdez and fitness coach Giber Becerra.
TFC head coach Greg Vanney and midfielder Jonathan Osorio both said there was no assault by the Toronto police. Vanney said one of Herrera’s assistant coaches approached Reds star Sebastian Giovinco and began talking to him.
While video of the confrontation in the tunnel under the BMO Field stands shows a Mexican player may have pushed a police officer, the rest of the footage is not clear.
Osorio said he saw two men “harassing Seba [Giovinco], two of their staff, it looked like. I stepped in to say, ‘Just relax.’ One of the guys took a little cheap shot. I took it and kept going. It escalated to a little bit of a thing.”
Osorio, who said he was not injured, said he did not see any Club America players involved in the incident, nor did he see any police involved. He said it was just the Mexican coaches.
“I didn’t see no players,” Osorio said. “I didn’t see any players involved. I saw [Herrera]. I saw the head coach. He was there.”
This was the second time in a little more than four months heated confrontations developed in the same spot between TFC and an opposing team. TFC striker Jozy Altidore was ejected from a Major League Soccer playoff game last November and suspended for a second one as a result of a confrontation with players from the New York Red Bulls.
The design of the tunnel to the dressing rooms is part of the problem. Both teams have to walk together under the stands to get to their dressing rooms.