Hosts Brazil fined for homophobic chants at Copa America

Copa America hosts Brazil have been fined by the South American football authorities for homophobic chants during their opening game at the tournament against Bolivia.

CONMEBOL fined the Brazilian Football Confederation $15,000 on Thursday over chants directed at Bolivian goalkeeper Carlos Lampe during the hosts’ 3-0 win in Sao Paulo on June 14. 

Homophobic chanting from the crowd was also heard during the quarterfinal victory against Paraguay on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, Uruguay were slapped with a $10,000 fine for a delayed return to the pitch for the second half of their 2-2 group stage draw against Japan.

Brazil booked their place in the semifinals with a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Paraguay after the scores finished level at 0-0.

They will face the winners of Argentina versus Venezuela in Friday night’s quarterfinal at the legendary Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

Argentina scraped into the knockout stages with a victory over Qatar, but skipper and star man Lionel Messi has said that “another Copa America starts, now it's all or nothing."

The team are aiming to win a first major trophy since 1993, while Messi is aiming to put a losing streak of four finals with his country behind him.