Inter Miami forward Luis Suárez appeared to spit on a Seattle Sounders staffer after his team’s 3-0 loss in the Leagues Cup final at Lumen Field on Sunday night.
Tempers flared at the end of the match with the two teams embroiled in a shoving match on the field after the final whistle.
As the teams began to go their separate ways, a camera caught Suárez in a heated exchange with a member of the Sounders staff and video on social media showed him lean towards the man and spit toward his face.
Miami keeper Oscar Ustari stepped between Suárez and the staffer and the parties went their separate ways.
“Unfortunately, that is going to take some of the attention away from a great performance by the Seattle Sounders,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said after the game. “Their players were frustrated and that led to some things happening on the field that shouldn’t happen on the field.
“I’m going to shut that down, because that shouldn’t be the story. The story of the game is not what happened after the game. I had a quiet moment with Messi on the field [after the game] and we talked and we tried to push it aside.
“That’s the story.”
Suárez was involved in an infamous incident during the 2014 World Cup in which he appeared to bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the teams Group D match in Brazil.
According to a Leagues Cup spokesperson, the “Leagues Cup Organizing Committee will review the incidents at the end of the game and proceed accordingly.”
The spokesperson also noted that there is no exact time regarding how long the review will take.
The Associated Press and ESPN’s Cesar Hernandez contributed to this report.
