Marcelo Bielsa took full responsibility for the Uruguay national team's group-stage elimination from the 2026 World Cup, calling the experience frustrating and painful.
Bielsa's three-year contract with the federation expired with Uruguay's exit from the World Cup.
"My responsibility for what happened is very clear. I cannot justify the position we finished in. In short, my management of the players I had was insufficient. We did our best, both my colleagues and I, and the players, and it wasn't enough. I am convinced that if I had chosen a different path, we wouldn't have changed the results we obtained," Bielsa said in a press conference on Tuesday in Montevideo.
"I feel we've disappointed the fans, which is a huge frustration. It was completely unexpected that our final position would be what it was, difficult to imagine.
"It's a fall that no one can admit or tolerate, especially the fans, who are the recipients of what we do...This ending is very painful because of the hopes I had when I took on this project, because of how badly it ended."
Uruguay concluded the 2026 World Cup with draws against Cabo Verde and Saudi Arabia before losing to Spain in the final group stage match.
Following the team's elimination, defender Sebastián Cáceres revealed the manager held a meeting with the players to say goodbye. "I'm not going to say what was discussed at Bielsa's farewell. That has to stay between us, as it should have from the very beginning," Caceres said on Sunday night when he arrived back in Uruguay.
"I have the utmost respect for him and a lot of gratitude. Bielsa revealed he actually held various meetings with the players throughout the course of his tenure with Uruguay, which led to conversations about training and the internal atmosphere.
"There was also a request to shorten the talks. I have my own way of explaining things, and I always opted to give a certain number of talks, but they wanted them reduced, and I agreed.
"The talks I've given are group talks about the upcoming opponent, group talks explaining the training exercises to reduce training time, and group talks about previous matches to correct mistakes, which I always believed were important," Bielsa said.
"The pain of a defeat that wounds one's pride cannot be resolved by talking; however, I will try to explain some of the things you ask me, because the only obligation I feel now is not to say anything that isn't true. The concessions I made were because if I hadn't agreed, it would have been worse. I haven't been capricious; I received tons of information, I summarized it as much as I could, it didn't work, and we dropped it."
Inter Miami CF forward Luis Suárez first criticized the conditions under Bielsa in 2024, blaming the manager for creating conflict within the squad.
"Tomorrow, I ask people not to take it out on the players if something goes wrong. Bielsa has separated the whole group, even in the way they train," Suarez said.
Following Suarez's interview, speculation over the atmosphere within the Uruguay team spiraled. Multiple reports in Uruguay said players asked Bielsa to change his tactics during the tournament before seeing visible tension between the coach and star player Federico Valverde during their loss to Spain.
"Regarding changing the strategy against Spain, more than anything, I could say, I'll say that it didn't happen, and if it had, I wouldn't be speaking well of the players, but it didn't happen. Observing the match against Spain indicates that we played according to my ideas, which were always the same," Bielsa said. The Uruguayan football association must now look to hire another manager for the national team.