CONMEBOL appointed 10 referees for the 2020 Women's Copa Libertadores held last month in Argentina and among them was Uruguayan Claudia Umpierrez. However, she was excluded from that list just days before the start of the competition and replaced with another Uruguayan referee, Anahi Fernandez. Her exclusion came as a result of statements made by the Uruguayan international referee on television. On 25 February 2021, the Uruguayan Referees Committee opened a disciplinary file for an alleged violation of internal regulations when she made a public statement in response to a question asked on the Polideportivo TV program (Channel 12). The AUF regulation does not allow the referees to express publicly their opinion about the AUF committees. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) made her exclusion official in response to the complaint received from the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF), since they have a rule that referees who have an open file by their association should not be appointed until the investigation has ended.
Umpierrez, who is also a lawyer and a member of the referees’ union, explained the position adopted by a virtual assembly of the Referees Committee to consider the demotion of 12 referees. She stated that "there were indications of decisions that had been irregular, illegal or unjustified." Likewise, she commented that "there were colleagues who reported that the Referees Committee had told them that they were not demoted due to poor performance, but that the committee was fulfilling a mandate from the AUF in order to reduce the number of referees." Claudia Umpierrez was notified that she had been excluded from the international tournament only hours before traveling to the Argentine capital. Umpierrez is highly regarded by FIFA and has participated in multiple top-level international tournaments. As the most significant example, she was the referee of the opening match of the last Women's World Cup, played in France in 2019, and was the fourth referee in the final of that tournament, played between the United States and the Netherlands. Surprisingly, Umpierrez was appointed this Thursday afternoon by the same Referees Committee as fourth official for Christian Ferreyra in the match that Danubio and Liverpool will play on Sunday, obviously under the organization of the same AUF that requested her exclusion from Copa Libertadores.
Source: La Diaria
