Cachirules

The cachirules scandal was a 1988 association football scandal in which the Mexican Football Federation (FEMEXFUT) was found to have knowingly used at least four overage players on the Mexican under-20 team which played at the 1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament, a qualification tournament for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship. FIFA, the world governing body, imposed a severe sanction on FEMEXFUT, banning its senior and underage teams from all international competition for two years (1988–1990). As a result, the Selección de fútbol de México (Mexico national team) was absent from the 1990 FIFA World Cup. The scandal has been considered a turning point in the history of football in Mexico.[1][2]

CONCACAF U-20 Tournament

Mexico and other national youth teams of the CONCACAF region were required to finish in first or second place in the 1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament hosted in Guatemala during April 1988 in order to qualify for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in the same year, FIFA issued a statement warning all national associations not to attempt to deceive the footballing authorities regarding the age of players participating in youth tournaments (in response to what was common practice by youth teams across the world of including players of age over the regulatory limit). The maximum age established by FIFA for participation of footballers in the Youth World Championship was 20 years.

Mexico first played two matches against Guyana national team, whom they beat by scores of 9–0 and 2–0, and then against locals Guatemala national team, winning again both matches 2–1 and 3–0. This last victory occurred on 20 April 1988 with forward Gerardo Jiménez scoring a goal, which secured the first place of the group for Mexico and their qualification to the World Youth Championship.

Investigation

Journalist Antonio Moreno from the Mexican channel Imevisión (now TV Azteca) and author of a football-dedicated column for Mexican newspaper Ovaciones, discovered in an April 1988 yearbook (1986–87 edition) published by FEMEXFUT itself, a discrepancy between the players' ages shown in the publication and the ones submitted by the federation to CONCACAF for the qualification tournament in Guatemala.[1] On 20 April 1988 Moreno published an article emphasizing the risks of "trying to create an advantage over the opponents by including players over the permitted age". In response, the then FEMEXFUT president Rafael del Castillo played down the matter and verbally attacked the reporter.[3]

Antonio Moreno, however, was backed up by fellow Imevisión journalist José Ramón Fernández, from the show La Misma Hora, who broadcast the news on television. The initial reaction of the FEMEXFUT was to deny and ignore the accusations, but once the public realized the magnitude of the scandal, many Mexican journalists began to interview the players and to insistently look for the team members' birth certificates; eventually, the real birth dates of players Gerardo Jiménez and José de la Fuente, both two years older than the established limit by the FEMEXFUT, were found. Forward José Luis Mata was over the age limit by three years, and defender Aurelio Rivera was four years over.[3] Rivera, at the time the team captain, has declared in later interviews that every one of the members of the squad was over age, although such affirmation has not been verified.[4]

The information was widely spread on televised and written media in Mexico and inevitably reached the United States Soccer Federation, who submitted an official complaint to CONCACAF demanding the case to be investigated after its youth team failed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.[5] The Guatemalan Football Federation also jumped in and joined the protest.[5] The discovery was conducted by Salvadorean José Ramón Flores, who promptly verified the falsity of the ages submitted by the FEMEXFUT for the tournament's squad members.[6]

Consequences

As a result, CONCACAF initially determined on June 19, 1988 that the ages of the four said players were in fact false and Mexico was disqualified from participation in the Saudi Arabia Youth World Championship; further, several officials were sidelined for life (but not the team coach Francisco Avilán), among them José de Jesús Alvarez Guzmán, Rafael Castellanos, Rafael del Castillo, Víctor Manuel González, Ramón Martínez, Manuel Acevez Montenegro, Gerardo Gallegos, Gilberto Morfín Salazar, and Héctor Antonio Pérez.[6][7] With the expulsion of Mexico, it was the Guatemalan team who replaced them in the next qualifying round. The United States replaced Mexico and, along with Costa Rica, they were the two CONCACAF nations to qualify to the World Youth Championship.

Rafael del Castillo traveled to Zurich on June 22, 1988 and attempted to appeal before FIFA, hoping to overturn the lifeban issued by CONCACAF; no regard was given to the situation of Mexican football's suspension[2][8] The Mexican executives arrived at the FIFA headquarters confident on the influence that Guillermo Cañedo might have within the world football's governing body, but they did not achieve the expected results.

On June 30, 1988, FIFA not only backed the measures dictated by CONCACAF, which had punished only the Mexican youth team, but in addition, increased the sentence by disqualifying all Mexican national teams, including the senior team, from every FIFA-sanctioned international competition for a period of two years; therefore, the Mexican team was left out of the 1988 Olympic tournament in Seoul, as well as the 1990 FIFA World Cup having been precluded from participation in the preliminary qualification rounds.[9]

Origin of the name "cachirules"

A possible origin of the word refers to the slang word cachirul or cachirulo, term used in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th Century to designate a patch or repair of bad quality on clothing. Alternatively, the term cachirul or cachirulo was employed for all things of questionable quality, origin, or reputation. Football used the adjective in the yards of lower amateur categories in cities and towns of Mexico, referring to players whom without being part of the team roster, would take the field in order to complete the team and thus avoid losing the game due to lack of players. This implicated deceiving the referee, as players used other player's identity, creating a "cachirul". As time passed, and especially after the 1988 scandal, the term cachirul in Mexico has become almost exclusively a footballing term.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Caso 'cachirules': negro recuerdo" (in Spanish). Diario El Universal. Archived from the original on 15 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  2. 1 2 Video del reportaje del 20 aniversario del escándalo de Los Cachirules – Parte 2 ESPN. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  3. 1 2 Video del reportaje del 20 aniversario del escándalo de Los Cachirules – Parte 1 ESPN. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  4. ↑ Correo de Guanajuato. "Negro recuerdo: a 20 años del caso de los "cachirules"" (in Spanish). El Universal. Retrieved 06-10-2009. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. 1 2 "Mexico apoya la CONCACAF en caso de juveniles, pg. 49" (in Spanish). La Nacion. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  6. 1 2 "Francisco Avilán no quiere hablar sobre los "cachirules"" (in Spanish). Diario La Afición. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  7. ↑ "Descalificacion a seleccion juvenil de Mexico, pg. 39" (in Spanish). La Nacion. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  8. ↑ "Mexico apelara a la FIFA, pg. 46" (in Spanish). La Nacion. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  9. ↑ "Mexico given ban in Soccer". The New York Times, July 1st, 1988. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
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