MIAMI, FL (July 14, 2017) – The CONCACAF Gold Cup Disciplinary Committee has made their decision regarding the French Guiana and Florent Malouda controversy. The attacking midfielder played for the country against Honduras this week in the 2017 Gold Cup. He did so after the federation had been warned that he was ineligble, having played previously for France internationally.
French Guiana And Florent Malouda Disciplined By CONCACAF
While delayed in their decision, CONCACAF put the hammer down on the country and Malouda. Here are the immediate sanctions and fines, per CONCACAF:
– The French Guiana national team is ruled to forfeit its Gold Cup match played against Honduras on July 11, 2017, and the official result is ruled a 3-0 victory for Honduras.
– The French Guiana Football League is fined an undisclosed amount.
– Florent Malouda has been suspended for two official matches, during which he will serve a concurrent stadium ban.
For the sake of the credibility of CONCACAF and the Gold Cup, it was the right decision to have the country and Florent Malouda disciplined this way. This suspension almost guarantees that Malouda will not be eligible to play again in the 2017 Gold Cup. His suspension will be served tonight for the final group stage against Costa Rica. French Guiana will have make it out of the group and to the Semifinals for his suspension to be over this month.
The forfeit puts French Guiana firmly in last place in Group A with no points and a negative five goal differential. They will have to beat Costa Rica (on paper the best team in the group). Honduras must lose to Canada. If Honduras gets even a draw, French Guiana are eliminated. With those two results, French Guiana will need to make up a goal differential of seven. If all those things happen, they’ll finish third (they’ve already been eliminated from finishing top two in the group).
To be a best third team, they’ll also need El Salvador and Martinique to lose their final games and finish with a worse goal differential. If those two teams get a point, French Guiana are out. They’re looking at very bad odds.
This decision is great for Honduras. They have yet to score a goal in this tournament. This gives them a good chance to advance out of the group stage. Still they have a lot to improve on offensively.
Final Thought: As many people put it on Twitter, this might be the most CONCACAF thing ever. A country was told a player was ineligible and that they would be punished for playing him. And they played him anyways. Just, wow.
