Editorial (July 23, 2017) – CONCACAF has handed out several Gold Cup suspensions the past few weeks. The actions taken by the CONCACAF Gold Cup Disciplinary Committee was appropriate, though not timed well perhaps. Overall, they got it right and it’s encouraging to see CONCACAF taking the integrity of the tournament seriously.
CONCACAF Got It Mostly Right With Gold Cup Suspensions
For those of you living under a rock, French Guiana played Florent Malouda in a group stage game after being told he was ineligible. The federation (which isn’t sanctioned by FIFA) argued that because they aren’t part of FIFA, they shouldn’t be subject to its rules. Malouda played internationally for France and scored a goal in the 2010 World Cup. CONCACAF argued that because they were playing the Gold Cup (a FIFA tournament), they need to follow the rules.
The People’s Court: CONCACAF Edition
FIFA sided with CONCACAF. French Guiana called up Malouda anyways and ‘took [their] chances’ playing him. CONCACAF later ruled the match against Honduras a forfeit and suspended Malouda two games. This effectively elimiated French Guiana and Malouda from playing beyond the final group stage match.
First off, can we talk about how ridiculous this is? This might be the most CONCACAF thing I’ve ever seen. A team got told one of their players wasn’t eligible and that they’d forfeit a match if they played him. Then they played him anyways. There is no gif in the Twitter database that fully captures how I feel about this.
CONCACAF’s reaction was appropriate. This was the first Gold Cup for the country and thus their first offense. Both parties (the player and the team) were punished for their part in the action. Some were calling for French Guiana to forfeit the entire tournament, but I think that would have been a little harsh. Others were upset with CONCACAF’s handling of the situation.
This is a bit of a slippery slope, as I argued on Last Word SC Radio. It would set a dangerous precident for fenderations to punish (and thus dictate) a member nation’s roster decisions. CONCACAF and FIFA both warned French Guiana what the consequences would be. If a national team wanted to call up a player who was ineligible to use in training but not for games, they should be allowed to make that (possibly poor) decision.
Where CONCACAF messed up was in the timing of their ruling. Honduras and French Guiana finished play on a Tuesday night. They didn’t come out with a ruling until Friday morning (as in 2:51 AM EST), the same day of the final Group A games. It seemed like a pretty straight forward decision, yet they took over 48 hours to review it. They could have made the decision at half time.
By Friday morning, all four teams were prepared under the assumption that the 0-0 draw against Honduras stood. In taking so long to rule, CONCACAF affected three other teams all veying for a Quarterfinal spot. That was not fair to the other teams. Many criticized this handling given that it essentially gifted Honduras a Best Third spot.
More Malouda Drama:
Part of Malouda’s punishment included a stadium ban. To take it to another CONCACAF level, Malouda showed up for his team’s final group stage game, on the French Guiana team bus. TV and stadium cameras caught his entrance as well as a shot of him enjoying the game from a box seat. CONCACAF has not handed down further punishment.
Again, I don’t know what to say about this. French Guiana and Malouda didn’t seem to have much respect for the decision. Instead of Malouda watching the game in a hotel room, they thumbed their nose at CONCACAF. No further punishment has been handed out as of this week. It would have been nice to see CONCACAF do something, but that might have been adding insult to injury. French Guiana lost all three group stage games.
El Salvador Biting And Other Shenanigans:
Earlier this week, the United States Men’s National Team defeated upstart El Salvador 2-0. Video replay caught Henry Romero pulling a Luis Suarez and biting American striker Jozy Altidore. On a separate play, he performed a purple nurple. In another incident, Darwin Ceren bit Omar Gonzalez.
Yesterday, CONCACAF came out with a six game suspension for Romero and a three game suspension for Ceren. This is consistent with them being first offenders off the precident set by Suarez. CONCACAF responded quickly and appropriately to these unprofessional acts. Also, I find it slightly amusing that CONCACAF thinks biting and purple nurples are equally bad offenses.
It would have been interesting to see if CONCACAF would also punish the coaching staff or the federation for these actions. A FIFA equivalent of lack of institutional control might have been harsh though, given that it’s still unclear where these actions came from. Perhaps the players did this of their own volition.
While imperfect, these decisions were a step in the right direction for CONCACAF. The continent has improved at upholding the integrity of the Gold Cup.
