Didn't know where to put this, but some people might find interesting even as just a side note ... http://mediotiempo.com/pi/noticia.php?id_noticia=7421 (in Spanish) FIFA fined the Panamanian Futbol Federation $4,000 for incidents that took place at the end WCQ between Panama and the United States at the Rommel fernandez stadium. Fans appearantly started throwing objects at the US players at the end of the game. Any more incidents and they will have the stadium suspended.
4K should really put the fear of God in them. They'll have to lease extra space on the team plane to whatever drug lord is running Noreiga's old network to cover that hefty fine. Any news on the tackle on Dempsey?
so what did costa rica do to the mexicans to have their next home match played before reporters only???
I'm not sure about this but it may be that Panama may have to do the same thing. In that article it says: "las autoridades suspendieron la preventa de boletos para el partido de este país ante Costa Rica el 9 de Septiembre en el Rommel Fernández con el fin de evitar incidentes..." "the authorities suspended the presale of tickets to the match against Costa Rica on the 9th of Sept. in Rommel Fernandez stadium with the intention of avoiding incidents..." I don't know if this is just that they are temporarily suspending sales pending figuring something out or if they aren't going to be selling tickets to the match at all. Hopefully it's the latter as that will mean a hell of a lot more to the association that a measly $4,000 fine.
The fine is not that big of a deal to me, but the threat of playing in an empty stadium is. All home field advantage for a Central American teams comes from the fans; you can essentially see those players feed off the emotions i.e. the pure hatred for the U.S. flowing through the crowd. If the U.S. ever played at Guatemala or at Costa Rica in an empty stadium, all homefield advantage is throw out the window. This is where those teams would be hurt the most, and I hope this sets a solid future precedent. Also, those guys can be friends with Osama all they want, but it did not prevent a 3-0 thrashing.
In fairness I think the Costa Rican fans treated the Mexicans much worse, I don't even remember hearing much about fans hurling many things at our guys after that game -- maybe its cause they're used to it. But if you saw the video from Costa Rica, I think we can understand why they couldn't play at their stadium the next game and Panama likely will be able to.
"Estadio Rommel Fernandez" Who names their kid Rommel? An Argentinian or Brazilian I can maybe see, but a Panamanian?
But the Ricans has JUSTIFICATION. Their vitriol was aimed at the Mexicans, who, deserve such treatment.
not quite related, but I found this regarding a fine handed down to Douglas Sequeiria for his actions in the US-CR WCQ
Frequently or Infrequently? Even as a German, or maybe even especially as a German, I would hesitate to name my kid after the best general of the Nazi era. Even if he did conspire to blow Hitler up.
So, what happens when the American fans scream "Migra!" at Columbus Crew Stadium in a few weeks? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I would really love to see an old-school European-style clash between Mexicans and Americans during a game!
I'd prefer this game without the collapsing stands option, please. Particularly bc I'll be in those stands.
I like this. IMO, fans... do whatever you want in the crowds, heckle the players, whatever. But once they try to instill bodily injury adn harm against any player, they need to be punished. And if the federations are not willing to take accountability into the safety of the players, then they need to be fined. I think the $4K is the tip of the iceberg. Future infractions will be dealt with more severely with higher fines or forfeiture of home fixtures before forfeiture in general. I think FIFA's cracking down on this garbage and has looked at CONCACAF a bit more recently. Remember - it wasn't very long ago that Costa Rica was punished for something too. Who knows... maybe it has to do with the growing number of players signing big contracts abroad and gaining exposure for the region. It would be a bit of a sock in general if the top players from the countries refused to play in the matches in the miserable uncontrolled regions of the federation for fear of being injured not even on the pitch, but due to horrid crowd control. What club in their right mind wouldn't fight about that?
I'm glad to see that incident didn't get swept under the rug but I didn't expect he would end up with a US$5,500 fine. The given excuse of why he wouldn't leave the field was that he was making sure Cherundolo was alright. OK, that makes sense but he seemed a bit more animated than that IMO.