Mexico has six years of being sanctioned by FIFA due to the discriminatory shout of its fans and the end of this 2021 throws a new stain on the record: a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs and the prohibition of receiving public in the next two matches of local.
The FIFA decreed this new punishment for the Mexican Soccer Federation (FMF) on Monday, November 1, as a result of the discriminatory cries heard during the matches of Mexico against Canada and Honduras at the Azteca stadium during the October FIFA date, valid for the World Cup qualifying round for Qatar 2022.
With this announcement, there are now 17 sanctions against Mexico and a total amount estimated at 656,400 dollars, which translates to around 13.7 million pesos. Only in July had the fine number 16 arrived after the investigations in the Concacaf Pre-Olympic held in March, which was the first international soccer tournament in which a Mexican stadium opened the doors to the fans since the beginning of the pandemic.
In this way, only in 2021 the FMF has been sanctioned with 200,000 Swiss francs, estimated at 4.58 million pesos, which means 33% of the total amount since the first punishment by FIFA in 2015.
However, the hardest blow to the Mexican Soccer Federation The most recent sanction is the veto of the next two official home matches, which will be paid on January 30 and February 2, 2022 against Costa Rica and Panama, respectively, on dates 10 and 11 of the Concacaf Octagonal Final for the 2022 World Cup. Just in September, Mexico also played behind closed doors against Jamaica at the start of the qualifiers for the sanction stipulated in July.
If this situation materializes, Mexico will only have received with the public four of seven possible matches during the World Cup qualifier, since it would only have the locality against the United States and El Salvador. El Tri has a record of two wins and a draw in their matches against Jamaica, Honduras and Canada.
The new sanction caused great annoyance inside the FMF, according to a source consulted by ESPN: “The sanction is disproportionate to how other federations are punished and goes against FIFA’s own rules, since step three of the protocol was never reached (send the players during a few minutes to the locker room), but instead stayed in step two (when the referee briefly stopped the game). It is as if a player is suspended for two games when he was only cautioned, it does not make sense ”.
During the match held at the Azteca stadium against Canada on October 7, the Mexican Soccer Federation used halftime to present a videomapping that lasted more than three minutes and in which he invited fans to change the discriminatory shout for a ‘Scream Mexico’. In addition, both in that same game and against Honduras three days later, a spot was constantly presented on the stadium screens in which players such as Diego Lainez and Edson Álvarez participated, asking to stop the screaming, but none of that worked.
The FMF He tried a new strategy by activating the local sound by saying “Mexico” every time rival goalkeepers cleared during those October knockout matches; however, the referee noticed this specifically in the match against Honduras and applied step one of the protocol, stopping the match for a couple of minutes.
Mexico has been in the spotlight for this type of slogan from its fans since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but the matter has become more serious this year, to the extent that Yon De Luisa, president of the FMF, has indicated that even the The venue for the 2026 World Cup is at risk for the country: “Of course there is a great risk. If this does not end and it does not end now, how is it possible that we want to host a World Cup if we are going to have our stadiums empty? ”, The manager replied to this newspaper in July, when he received sanction 16 from FIFA.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx