Fabio Cannavaro has explained why he and his Uzbekistan national team squad were stopped and searched by security immediately after stepping off their team coach prior to a World Cup warm-up friendly against the Netherlands earlier this week: ‘Standard procedure’.
Cannavaro will lead the Uzbekistan national team into their first ever World Cup finals this summer after finishing second in their qualification group. They will be in the same group as Portugal, DR Congo and Colombia at the final tournament.
There was confusion, however, when footage was broadcast on South American television showing Cannavaro and the Uzbekistan delegation being stopped and searched by security including a sniffer dog immediately after stepping off their team coach before a friendly against the Netherlands earlier this week.
REGISTRO SUPER ESTRICTO HASTA CON PERROS
Así fue el protocolo de seguridad con la Selección de Uzbekistán previo al amistoso contra Países Bajos en Estados Unidos.
pic.twitter.com/D1SzMEYZcP
— ESPN Centroamérica (@ESPN_CENAM) June 8, 2026
Cannavaro clarifies: ‘These were routine, standard checks’
Cannavaro has since taken to social media to explain that it is customary for teams to be subjected to security searches before playing in matches, and said that he found the organisation of the tournament in the USA to be ‘flawless’.
“I saw photographs on the front pages of the newspapers showing the searches we were subjected to at the airport, as members of the Uzbek national team. I’ve also seen misleading headlines, so I’d like to set the record straight,” Cannavaro wrote in a post on Instagram.
“These were routine, standard checks. People don’t realise one thing: when World Cup national teams travel, they don’t go through the airport terminals like ordinary travellers, but are taken directly to the tarmac in buses reserved for the teams.
“The checks that ordinary travellers undergo in the terminal, we undergo directly on the tarmac. Exactly the same ones. It’s standard procedure.
“So there’s no scandal. No undignified or disrespectful treatment. The same applies to the matches. Before the friendly against the Netherlands, we were screened at the stadium, and this too was expected: before every match, teams undergo screening either at the hotel just before setting off (as happened with the Netherlands) or directly at the stadium, as happened to us.
“The truth is that we found the organisation to be flawless.”
