FIFA suspends Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala

The president and treasurer of the Guatemalan federation were suspended by their national sports authority a couple weeks ago due to charges of embezzlement. Not sure exactly what the deal is with CONCACAF, but "outside interference" into national federation business has gotten countries suspended in the past--Guyana was suspended for the last WCQ because the election for their FA president was being challenged in court.

 

Does anyone know if this will be cleared up quickly? How long is this ban expected to last?

 

The Joy of CONCACAF

If Guatemala is out, then you either need to scrap the whole CONCACAF qualification structure as it is and start over (only 33 teams now) and re-draw, or, you need to do this:

Put Canada, St. Vincent, Surinam, Belize, Nicaragua, and Aruba in 3 groups of 2 (the "First Stage").
Canada, St. Vincent, and Surinam are the seeded teams (using WCQ 2002 results and then FIFA rankings 12/02/03) and then re-draw their opponents from the remaining three.
Basically, they become "First Stage" Groups 8, 12, and 6, respectively.
The group seedings stay the same for the winners going to the "Second Stage", and this would solve the un-balanced, odd-numbered team problema.

It actually is a fairer system, as well, since Nicaragua and Belize didn't deserve a bye from the preliminary stage.

Either way, the "Second Stage" will be easier for Group 2 without Guatemala involved.

 

Re: CONCACAF suspends Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala

From this, I infer that all Guatemalan club teams are suspended from CONCACAF events. If I am not mistaken, WCQ is a FIFA event, not a CONCACAF event. When the matter is taken up with FIFA after new year's, we'll likely get a statement from FIFA on whether or not Guatemala's national team will be disqualified from competing in WCQ as well.

 

Re: Re: CONCACAF suspends Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala

Usually if a confederation suspends a nation, FIFA follows through with it as well. And what if by your argument Guatemala some how qualified and this was still going on (not likely). You think CONCACAF would let a suspended team represent the confederation in the World Cup? HELLZZZ NO.

If Guatemala is suspended by CONCACAF, it is a fore gone conclusion that they are suspended by FIFA as well...

 

Re: Re: Re: CONCACAF suspends Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala

That may be, but I'm still waiting to hear it from the proverbial horse's mouth.

 

Re: The Joy of CONCACAF

I seriously doubt they'll do any kind of redraw. My guess is you'll see the Aruba/Surinam winner get a free pass to the (former) group of death. This is what happened in 1990 when Mexico got banned - Costa Rica simply got a bye in the second round.

I just wonder what the chances of this happening are. I agree with Davids26 that FIFA will almost certainly follow CONCACAF's lead. The only question is, what chance will Guatemala have of reversing the decision? How long do they have to satisfy FIFA/CONCACAF and still participate in qualification?

 

Re: The Joy of CONCACAF

Maybe I'm missing something in your proposal, but what's the difference. If Canada pulls Belize, St. Vincent pulls Nicaragua and Surinam pulls Aruba it's the exact same thing as before. And even if they pull someone new, you've just made an arbitrary re-draw for part of the qualifying process and you're still probably going to end up with Canada, St. Vincent and Surinam advancing no matter who they play (Surinam's a toss-up, but I think they can beat Nicaragua if that's how your re-draw turned out).

What would be the point? It would suck to have Surinam in over their heads (I would assume) against Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras, but it also sucks that somehow St. Vincent got nearly a free pass to the semis when teams like Cuba and Haiti are pretty much longshots. It's the luck of the draw. And it sucks for Guatemala if they gets suspended, but that's just good fortune for Surinam for getting a lucky draw.

We already have a draw where one of most people's top six teams won't make it to the hex (be it Costa Rica, Honduras, Canada or Guatemala). Luck of the draw was huge in the opening rounds of this format and I don't see them re-doing the whole thing just because one team will get a big break if Guatemala is suspended.

cheers,
hobbes

 

Well, looking at the recent bans or threatened bans of Anguilla, Iraq, Azerbajan, Poland and others over the past two years, I expect that CONCANAF and FIFA WILL work things out with the Guatemalan government. And, it could be up to the LAST minute, as experience shows. There is tremendous pressure on the Guatemala government in a country where soccer is a religion to cave in to FIFA/CONCACAF demands. Which is too bad in a way, as often the national governments have a legitimate gripe against the money-making corruption of the local soccer associations, who are often aided and abetted in the corruption by the likes of Blatter and Warner. I suspect, without knowing any details, that this is the root cause of the disputes more than the "prevention of government interference in football governance" cause trotted out by FIFA and the confederations.

As a Canadian, I would be in a way happy to get one obstacle out of the way for a WC reappearance (Guatemala would be hell to travel to for our team), but it would be bad for football.

 

Re: Re: The Joy of CONCACAF

Hobbes,

You make an excellent point. You could just leave the match-ups as is. That would work fine, based upon the rankings. No real dire need to re-draw, except to keep things above the table.

The major reason I proposed re-drawing the above six teams was that it is a golden opportunity to get closer to correcting a major wrong here.
Ideally, under this already-broken system, the two-top-ranked teams from the 22 who had to be involved in preliminaries would have gotten a bye (Those would be Cuba and Haiti, tied at 71).

A large group round robin stage to begin would have been ideal, using pots A,B,C,D, etc...with maybe 2 groups of 8 and 2 groups of 9, going directly on to the Hex. But... I'm trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear here.

Remember, Nicaragua and Belize received a bye from the "First Stage" preliminaries simply because they belong to the Central American Federation, and not the Caribbean Federation. This was a serious injustice in light of the FIFA rankings before the WC draw in early December.

Nicaragua was ranked 186, while St. Lucia, ranked 112, had to play a preliminary. The same goes for Belize, ranked 158, while St. Kitts and Nevis was ranked 109 had to play 2 extra preliminaries.

I just think, in my opinion, that the 2 "Group of 2" match-ups as originally arranged by CONCACAF were a travesty, not because only two teams were playing vs. three, but that two minnows like Nicaragua and Belize got a free pass into the second phase of the "First Stage", with no regard for ranking (not that FIFA's rankings are holy, but they're all we've got in these situations, and other confederations use them the same way).

My idea doesn't correct the lack of a preliminary for the minnows here. But mathematically, other than holding a round-robin, or two groups of three (which both involve too many games) if Guatemala is suspended, this is the only feasible thing.

Bottom line: The whole qualification system in CONCACAF sucks.

Happy New Year

 

I believe the Guyana FA was suspended after the preliminary draw in the last WC Qualifiers and the team that they were supposed to play, Antigua and Barbuda, were given a free pass into the next round. There is no need for a re-draw. Surinam just gets lucky if this doesn't get settled.

Thats all.


And OBartleby, Sepp Blatter and Jack Warner are pretty much one in the same wouldn't you agree? There is no precedent set to believe that FIFA wouldn't follow CONCACAF's ruling on the Guatemalan FA. The precedent is however set that FIFA will follow the CONCACAF (or other confederation ruling). Guyana, Anguilla, Afghanistan, etc...

 

Re: Re: The Joy of CONCACAF

A tidy 6-figure payment to one of Blazer's
Grand Cayman accounts will suffice.

-bs

 

Very valid point, and well taken. But stranger things have happened. I'll still wait for FIFA's ruling on the issue. Guatemala's suspension would suck for Guatemalans, and it would be a travesty for the players to not be able to participate because of what some crooked suits may or may not have done.

I guess that's the crux of argument for me: why should the players and the fans suffer for the actions of one or a few? Deal separately with those who commited any crimes and let Guatemala play. If they do get suspended, the whole thing will smell of political vendetta... one more dirty stain upon Blatter's administration.

 

Because frankly there needs to be some organization in every FA. Even if it doesn't seem like there is. It seems simple to just say "Let them play", but everyone else in FIFA abides by the 'rules' Guatemala should have to too I suppose.

 

beachesl, things did not work out for Guinea in the 2002 WC qualifiers. Then again, they weren't dealing with the "green justice" of Mr. Warner and company.

 

Re: Re: CONCACAF suspends Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala

How did you reach the inference that it's a club ban? When I read "any Guatemalan teams," I take it as any team sponsored by the federation: National, Women's National, U-23, Futsal, etc.

OBartleby quote: "why should the players and the fans suffer for the actions of one or a few? Deal separately with those who commited any crimes and let Guatemala play."

Yes. By that notion, what did CSD Communicaciones do to get tossed out of the Champions Cup?

 

FIFA suspends Guatemala:

http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=2380

 

FIFA suspends Guatemala

I was just about to post the same link. Perhaps, the thread title should be changed to reflect the more serious nature.

Explicit in the article is that Guatemala is suspended for all friendly and competitive matches including WCQ and next month's Olympic qualifying tournament.

Also explicit, is that they can stop the suspension by reversing the current situation. It looks like they have until May if they want to qualify.

 

Amazing. The government trying to interfere with the Fedefute. That is rediculous. I would be very curious to see how quickly or how late this will turnaround.

 

I also have a bit of a problem with Fifa's policy against "outside interference". After all, governments of countries like Guatemala (and the rest of Central America) pour millions of dollars into their national soccer teams, and it is all done in a corrupt environment.. They should be able to hold their federations to some degree of accountability. Like beachesl, I will also venture to guess that Fifa's real intention is to protect the local Capo's.