Wegerle - Mexico tried to bribe U.S. to throw match during 98 Qualifying

Wow.

I can assure you, you are NOT the last person to hear about this. 2nd to last, at worst.

 

Re: Wegerle - Mexico tried to bribe U.S. to throw match

This makes no sense.

1)The final qualifying game was against El Salvador who were still trying to qualify.
2) Mexico had already qualified by virtue of the scorless tie in Azteca.

I think that's an error. It hink they were approached by somoene from the Salvadorian federation and if I'm not mistaken, Hakes mentioned this is Captain for Life

 

3rd to last

 

Re: Re: Wegerle - Mexico tried to bribe U.S. to throw match

That makes more sense, though I hadn't heard anything like this before either. El Salvador could still have qualified if they had beaten us and (I think) Jamica had lost. Mexico had qualified with, iirc, 2 games to spare, and was never in any realistic danger of not qualifying.

 

Mexico did qualify with two games to spare, the U.S. with one.

It was down to Jamaica or El Salvador. A win by El Salvador and a loss by Jamaica would have put El Salvador through, on goal difference. Jamaica needed at least a tie, which they got vs. Mexico in Jamaica.

Unless the quote is wrong in the original post (I'm not saying it is and am not doubting that it is), this is typical of 442. They are better than a club fanzine, but they are a far cry from a real magazine.

 

I remeber this being mentioned durning the USA-El Salvador game. A meesage was left on John Harkes voice mail.

 

Give him a break, he's from England.

El Salvador, Mexico, what's the difference?

 

LOL, those Euros know nothing about the world They only know their own back yard.

 

Very funny, but actually quite true. Europeans belive they're so international because they can take a three hour train ride through several countries yet know next to nothing about the world outside Europe.

 

Yea, but Americans are Connoisseurs of the nuances of the local traditions of nations in latin america right? Give me a break.

 

I remember this now. It was definitely reported at the time. For some reason, I think I remember them actually playing the messages at soem point on the telecast, although i don't remember this definitively, and it's hard to imagine them doing so. That's more a vague vague vague recollection, and I'm not confident in that prat at all.

 

I think you're right, now that I think about it.
It WAS mentioned.

 

In 1996 there were articles claiming we (Mexico) bribed FIFA to get to host the world cup.

In 1994 There where articles claiming we paid off Canada in the last match.

1998 This FourFourTwo crap

2002 The Honduran Congress begins an investigation of the Honduran National Team. The
reason: "Taking bribes from Mexican officials to throw the game at Azteca"
.
.
.
Boy, the FMF sure has alot of money to throw arround!

 

Look the rag screwed up. It was El Salvador, not Mexico. Mexico was already in at the time. It's really not that hard.

 

How dumb would you have to be to leave a voice mail about something like this?

 

Why is everyone assuming that this happened (if it did) before the very last game of qualifying? The quote doesn't say that - a poster did and now everyone's treating it as gospel.

 

That's true. It does say that Wegerle was approached in Dallas. Anybody know if we played any qualifiers in Dallas, and, if so, who was the opponent? As I recall, the El Salvador qualifier was at Foxboro.

 

Well, according to US soccer, we played all of our WCQ's in 1997.


Mexico in Foxboro (2-2 T, 4-20-97)
El Sal in Foxboro (4-2 W, 11-16-97)


Now, we did go down to Mexico City for that infamous tie. Strong possibility that we trained in Dallas, I suppose. Would somewhat match the climate down south (smog, pollution excepted, of course).

But no qualies in Dallas... No Friendlies either, for that matter, in either 97 or 98.

 

Were Wegerle and Harkes together on DCU at the time? Maybe they were approached in Dallas when DCU was in town to play the Burn, at some point before a key qualifier.

 

They were, in fact, on the team together in '97.

Still, I don't think we'll get very far with this line of thinking...


I mean, I wouldn't put it past ANY supporter or mid-level lackey of ANY country to make a stoopid offer like this. IF it happened (not saying it did, but let's pretend it did) it literally could've been anyone.

Now, if Roy is saying that he actually sat down with someone and he KNEW who the person was (not who he SAYS he was) then I might put more behind this...



Same goes for that alleged answering machine message... Hell, I know a certain group that will go nameless (*cough*PrrojectMayhem*cough*) that wouldn't be beyond sending up a few fake smoke signals to wind up the other team/officials.

 

Re: Re: Wegerle - Mexico tried to bribe U.S. to throw match during 98 Qualifying

I saw Wegs play a lot and I say he took the money.