The chances of seeing Herculez Gomez in a Chivas de Guadalajara jersey in the near future appear less and less likely after the club issued a series of tweets that seemed to contradict statements made by the team’s very owner.
The Liga MX club reiterated its policy of contracting only Mexican players who wish to play for the Mexican national team on Wednesday, sending out their rule on their official twitter. The tweets come only days after multiple outlets were reporting that Herculez Gomez, a Mexican-American who plays for Santos Laguna and the U.S. Men’s National Team, was a potential target of the club.
Making matters even more interesting is that earlier in the day, Chivas owner Jorge Vergara told Mexican outlet Cancha that players like Gomez could play for the club despite being born elsewhere or suiting up for another national team, a direct contradiction of Chivas’ rule. Vergara said they could play for Chivas so long as they were Mexican. Statements soon contradicted by the club’s statements on Twitter.
The club’s tweet and twitter account have since been made unavailable.
What do you think of Chivas’ policy to only play Mexicans interested in playing for the Mexican national team? Would you like to see Gomez play for them? Think he is better off staying with Santos Laguna?
Share your thoughts below.
It would be a matter of pride -ala Athletic Bilbao- if it was not an outdated form of nationalism.
Hey Chivas
How about mexican nationals of mexican parentage who happen to have another nationality and play for a different national team?
er.. no…those are traitors.
Ok sure. Can’t Herculez retire, start a career in politics and get elected as the president of Mexico?
He sure can.
So, folks like, Nery Castillo or Anibal Zurdo, who happened to be born in Mexico, of foreign parents, who have no cultural link whatsoever to the country and speak with a far weirder accent than Herc are quite welcome in Chivas…
Get a policy that makes sense for your elitist club or get none.
what is accepted in other countries as a SOURCE OF PRIDE, would be absolutely hammered by the pc police in america…..can you imagine a team in the U.S. saying we will only field American players?
msnbc would interrupt their regular programming and keith olberman would be called in to opine on such a controversial rule or policy or tradition .Then a law suit would follow……..its just stupid to me….But they do have every right to make their own policy……..
Chivas broke their rule back in the 90s (IIRC) and they’ve continued doing it since. Just stupid that they keep the pretense up. Celtic/Rangers gave up a long time ago, so should Chivas.
How rich; the irony of Mexicans legally allowed to discriminate against non-Mexicans — or those not deemed Mexican enough — while bellyaching about the treatment of Mexicans in the US.
True. Should be interesting how Chivas deals with this in the future, considering there’s something like 50million foreign born Mexicans. For all we know, the Mexico NT will be filled with foreign born players like the USMNT in the near future, just look at the academies in Mexico that are filled with mex-ame players.
I believe the allegiance to the Mexican national team is more important than geographic location of the player’s birth.
Chivas already has two first-team players born in the US, Miguel Ponce and Jesus Padilla, and at least four youth players born in the US. Ponce has three caps for Mexico, but is not cap-tied. It seems to be international allegiance that matters: current Vancouver Whitecaps forward Omar Salgado was cut from the Chivas youth system for accepting a US U-20 callup, after being told several times that he could no longer stay at the club if he chose to play for the US.
best thing Herculez! Herculez! could do is play for Chivas’s bitter rivals, America de D.F. and score all day on them. that would burn.
Am I the only one that thinks it’s ironic/hypocritical that Chivas maintain this stance, but still have an American affiliate (Chivas USA)? Talk about selling out? Oh wait, Chivas USA don’t do that (unless they’re playing the Galaxy)
if an MLS club tried this they would be shut down for violating race and national origin discrimination laws.
Not under the pretense that the club is a private organization. Private organizations are allowed to determine their own criteria for membership.
Pro sports clubs are employers, not voluntary membership organizations. They’re subject to antidiscrimination laws.
I wish I was rich…I’d buy a English team and only allow Americans to play on it. Then I’d be relegated year after year.
Yes, but if they played in France…
Haha! Tried not to laugh but thought this was pretty funny.
I know this was a joke, but they do have rules that require a certain number of domestic players. Otherwise, it would be fun to see at least.
This is no surprise, and frankly, I don’t see Gomez moving to Chivas as an upward move. Santos Laguna is a good club as proven by their recent success in the FMF. I fully support Chivas’ policy on playing Mexican players. It might handcuff them in terms of talent, but what do I care… I respect the fact that they want to be a farm club for El Tri and I wish there was an MLS team that did the same.
racist
Has nothing to do with race. It’s nationality. “Xenophobe” is the ad hominem you’re looking for.
This fell through because Chivas was going to sign Herc and send him on loan to Athletic Bilbao.
haha good one
Its a source of pride for Mexicans that CD Guadalajara only plays and develops other Mexicans. I know Gomez is of Mexican heritage, and I’m sure he’d love to play for a club with such a storied tradition like Chivas, but to me, it would seem like they would be cheapening their policy.
I don’t care where Herc ends up, as long as he’s seeing regular time and scoring goals.
“C.D. Guadalajara is the only football club in Mexico to exclusively field players of Mexican heritage, so it’s a f*****g racist football team.”
Copied from their Wiki page. Someone must have edited it. Funny.
I hate el tri and no fan of Chivas, but I think there is something to be said for having a tradition and sticking to it.
I kinda like how Chivas does things. At least they have a consistent brand for the team. I know that “winning” should be #1 for these teams, but when you consider that most of them don’t win anyway…..it’s nice to have some consistent, secondary branding to fall back on.
I’d love it if some MLS side did an “Americans Only” team.
That team might have God on their side, but it’s still racis’
nationality not race.
How in the world is that racist? The pool of USMNT-eligible players is more racially diverse than any other national team in the world.
They also probably speak more languages than any other national team.
Sounds like a dumb policy. Would ManU be as good as they are if they only fielded English players?
Xenophobes
Different cultural standards obviously, but can you imagine the Galaxy sending out a tweet, “We’d like to reiterate our policy of contracting only American players who wish to play for the American national team.” Xenophobia indeed.
Xenophobes that make exceptions when it benefits them. They’ve broken their own “supposed rules” and look like even bigger fools when they do it.