Photo by Jason Getz/USA Today Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
Wednesday night’s Gold Cup semifinal between Mexico and Panama descended into absolute chaos, and now CONCACAF is determining how to handle the aftermath.
The organization is investigating the events that occurred in Wednesday night’s match, a match that saw Mexico controversially advance via a 2-1 scoreline. Enraged as Mexico was awarded yet another dubious late penalty, Panamanian players stormed referee Mark Geiger with one, Angel Patrick, apparently attempting to kick out at the American referee.
In addition, the team stated its displeasure with a post-game banner, calling CONCACAF “thieves”.
“CONCACAF Disciplinary Committee is currently reviewing all information regarding the incidents that took place during and immediately following the 2015 Gold Cup semifinal match between Panama and Mexico,” CONCACAF said in a written statement.
“The Committee will conduct an investigation according to CONCACAF Statutes and 2015 Gold Cup Regulations and determine whether any disciplinary action should be taken.”
Here are some more news and notes to kick off your Friday morning:
FIFA STRUGGLING TO FIND NEW SPONSORS
In the wake of all of the organization’s controversies, companies are not leaping out of their seats to forge partnerships with FIFA.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke admitted as much Friday, stating that the organization is struggling to find new sponsorship agreements due to ongoing controversy.
“The current situation doesn’t help to finalise any new agreements — that is a fact,” Valcke said, “and I’m sure until the [presidential] election on Feb. 26 there will not be any major announcements.”
FIFA has organized a meeting with existing sponsors to be held next month, but the organization has yet to replace Emirates or any of the 20 regional sponsorship deals.
Most recently, Visa has called for Coca Cola to join them in forcing change in FIFA, stating that, while Sepp Blatter is president, there can be no reforms with the organization’s response being “wholly inadequate”.
HULK REPLACED FOR WORLD CUP DRAW IN WAKE OF RACISM INCIDENT
Just days after complaining about racism issues in the country, Brazilian striker Hulk will not take part in Saturday’s World Cup qualifying draw in Russia.
FIFA states that Hulk has been replaced because of “club commitments” with Zenit St. Petersburg, who visit Ural Yekaterinburg in the Russian Premier League on Sunday. However, the match has been scheduled since June 30, long before Hulk was announced as a participant.
The move comes in the aftermath of a statement from the Brazilian, condemning the racist actions that he has seen during his time in Russia.
“It [racism] happens at almost every match in Russia,” Hulk said Monday, “but the world does not hear about it because they try to keep it quiet.”
The forward will be replaced by Russia captain Alexey Smertin at the draw, which will also see participation from Ronaldo, Diego Forlán, Fabio Cannavaro, Samuel Eto’o and Oliver Bierhoff.
QUICK KICKS
Manchester United has asked Sergio Ramos to demand an exit from Real Madrid. (REPORT)
Barcelona has been fined by UEFA for fans’ displaying of pro-Catalan political banners at the Champions League final. (REPORT)
Inter Milan are closing in on a deal to sign Stefan Jovetic from Manchester City. (REPORT)
Former Australia and Liverpool midfielder Harry Kewell has joined Watford as the club’s Under-21 coach. (REPORT)
Former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon plans to run for FIFA’s presidency. (REPORT)
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How should CONCACAF handle Wednesday’s incident? What do you expect from FIFA in the coming year? What concerns do you have regarding the 2018 World Cup?
Share your thoughts below.
Geiger is a biatch.
Lol at the fact that SBI soccer has reported more on the Catalonian independence movement then all of the main stream media
I think the time has come to separate fans from different countries at these tournaments. With everything being mixed it wasn’t clear if it was the Mexican or Panamanian fan who were hurling objects. Withe separate seating it’s very clear. I think the team should pay for the behavior of their fans. Dock them points in word cup qualifying (start our at -3) and make them play their next few competitive home matches in empty stadiums.
I am pretty sure that the fans that threw the bottles am beers at the Panamanians when they celebrated the 1 up were Mexican. Like they did in the Trinidad game.
Corrupt American officials instigated this whole mess. Anybody investigating them?
Americans are Mexico’s biatches! They will not be investigated.
What if soccer worked like, say, the NBA — leave the bench area and you’re suspended. That would go a long way toward preventing the kind of embarrassing spectacle we saw the other night. If he/she didn;t didn;t have the impression already, a casual fan who happened to watch that game, or just a general sports fan who saw it all on SportsCenter or YouTube, would probably think that soccer in this part of the world is an essentially unregulated joke.
Wow, the headline for this one was a little misleading. Or maybe I was just having some wishful thinking. But I assumed that “investigation” would be investigation into match-fixing. Very upset to see that it’s a disciplinary investigation.
I am very interested in the matching fixing people to explain it to me.
Wait until 90th min then call a PK? There were no other opportunities to make sure Mexico could win, or they just wanted dramatic effect?
It’s pretty simple actually. As a match fixing ref, you have to wait until the team you’re helping gets into good position. The guy gave a controversial red in the first half to help along but Mexico could hardly muster any advantage from it. Then as the game goes along and Panama are actually winning (WTF?), you look increasingly desperately for anything to call for Mexico. Otherwise you get broken kneecaps after the game, or worse. The PK call wasn’t in the 90th because of drama, it’s because there was literally no time left for the ref to fix the match so he had to risk it looking like an obviously biased call.
Save time and money they investigation will go as follows:
Panama is punished for having audacity to look behind the curtain and point out the corruption and concacaf. They are supposed to accept it and shut up about it like everyone else.
Mexico: nothing to see here move along don’t look at the man behind the curtain. Let all the Mexicans in the U.S. know Tickets are on sale for the final as well as concacaf approved Mexico jerseys t-shirts and souvenirs
As long as Mexico fans are buying the beer they are throwing at players nothing will be done.
Actually they will encourage the throwing cause, you know, they will buy another one
Read the headline, thought they’d be investigating that referee . . .
Yup, that’s what I was thinking.
Odds they do the right thing 1:1,000,000
I have seen a number of posts and heard while playing that referees deserve incredible respect and treatment, but I do not understand why that should be true. The referee is just a person, and the referee has a job to do. The referee should be treated in proportion to the referee’s honesty and integrity on the field. I have seen multiple views of the handball incident that allowed Mexico to eventually win the game. The ball did hit the Panamanian players arm, however, slow motion replay from multiple angles shows the Panamanian player falling after a physical interaction with a Mexican player, which probably should have been called a foul, and the arm movement was to break his fall, not touch the ball.
If it is obvious to almost everyone including the announcers on Univision who credited the goal to Mark Geiger instead of Andres Guardado, then the referee deserves to be yelled at on the field, and the referee deserves to be investigated for match fixing; that is a proportionate response to the referees actions. There was no physical attack on the referee, which is where I would generally draw the line.
If there is any logical reason why a referee should be untouchable even when it appears the referee is blatantly biased or corrupt, then I would like to hear why. I have never seen any justification for this idea. I have only seen statements that suggest they are self evident.
FK Pirin – the referee (and his team) is (should be) the only true individual on the field who is not concerned with the outcome of the game. Both teams and most fans have an interest in who wins. As a result, the effect of any play is biased by their interest.
In order to protect the referee, there must be rules that allow the referee to control the game by calling fouls, rewarding free kicks, and putting the ball back in play. One of those rules has to be respect for the authority of the referee to make those calls during the game. Without that, you would be left with a melee after every call, or to go back to the days where who ever gets to the ball first when it goes out of touch gets to put the ball back in play.
If there are questions about the referee after the game, then those need to be investigated. But to say that it was acceptable for the Panamanians to run after Geiger during or at the end of the game is incorrect. If you think it is okay, then you probably think that the game would be better allowing the players to call their own fouls. At some point, the referee must be allowed to get the game going – and a 10 minute fracas at the semi final of a regional championship is unacceptable. That does not fall only on the referee, that falls on the team and its management.
As general principles I agree that you have to respect the authority of the referee for the reasons you state, but my issue is only in regard to decisions that are extremely obvious bad calls that decide a game, and affect money for a countries soccer programs, players careers, and in many cases a strong sense of national happiness that could even improve the economy like Germany in 2006. It is much easier for that to happen in soccer than in most other major team sports. I just think there is a big difference between justified complaints on major obvious decisions that happen maybe once a season and people whining about every call. The odds of a referee of Geigers quality making both the red card call and this handball call in one game are low enough that treating him badly seems justified because the referee decided an important match either through incredible negligence or because the fix was in, and that shouldn’t happen in soccer at this level.
I understand where you are coming fro, however you still can’t go after a ref. The right move would have been to just leave the field and not continue to play. The match was clearly fixed and there was nothing Panama could do to win.
Because the ref is in charge?
If the match was fixed then he should be out. Rediculous to me, but if so, he should be out and a new guy in charge should be respected.
So the conspiracy folks think the game was fixed, but they let it go close to the 90th min, just to get a tie for Mexico? I was at a fixed game once. That wasn’t how it worked.
Quite frankly weird to think it would, in my opinion. If Panama had kept control of the ball, then Gieger would have called a bad call in the opposing corner flag and prayed for the best? Just to get it to tied. LOL.
Well, one would think Mexico could find a goal, on there own, up a man for 70 minutes.
As general principles I agree that you have to respect the authority of the referee for the reasons you state, but my issue is only in regard to decisions that are extremely obvious bad calls that decide a game, and affect money for a countries soccer programs, players careers, and in many cases a strong sense of national happiness that could even improve the economy like Germany in 2006. It is much easier for that to happen in soccer than in most other major team sports. I just think there is a big difference between justified complaints on major obvious decisions that happen maybe once a season and people whining about every call. The odds of a referee of Geigers quality making both the red card call and this handball call in one game are low enough that treating him badly seems justified because the referee decided an important match either through incredible negligence or because the fix was in, and that shouldn’t happen in soccer at this level.
That’s the question, can’t you question the authority of the referee if there is an incredibly bad call that or extrenme bias in a match that decides a game. It can’t be true that being in charge means you are completely protected from criticism. What if a judge sentenced someone to 10 years in jail for stealing a candy bar, wouldn’t civil disobedience in the courtroom be justified, even if it was an honest mistake rather than bias or corruption? It can’t be right to force people to swallow an injustice because the guy who made the decision was in charge when he made it.
If a judge makes a bad sentence, what do you do? Do you yell at the judge in the courtroom? Rush the bench to get closer to yell at him? Threaten to hurt him? Curse at him? In my experience, that won’t change his mind.
No, you file an appeal with the next court. You brief the issue. You argue that the sentencing judge made an error.
Charging at the ref is not civil disobedience; neither is yelling at him. The ref isn’t going to change his mind because a player is yelling at him. Your option, as Panama, is to appeal to CONCACAF, the FIFA, etc. Its not perfect; but you know what, neither is the world.
until bank account balances are released, there will never be a satisfactory answer. I hope the DOJ is looking at this, hell they already have the investigation open!
I was on the conspiracy train for a while, but someone released some video of the play from a different view. From that view it did appear more likely than not that it was an intentional smothering of the ball with arms/hands. Treatment of Geiger was wrong. Should never touch a ref
Should the ref touch themselves?
I’m sorry, but this here is as good a view as any (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z__aQzJn5I), and I don’t see how anyone can be sure of any intentional handball.
Intention doesn’t have any official influence on the letter of the law when it comes to handballs. I tend to believe a good ref should take intention into account though.
That being said, there was a shot of the Panamanian showing his back as he came down and his hip definitely pushes the ball against his elbow before he reacts and pulls his arms out of the way.
By the letter of the law it was a handball. If you bring intention into it he pullls away trying his best not to affect the ball with his hand. That’s from the replay though. At game speed, I really don’t have a problem with Geiger calling it a hand ball.
21 from Mexico clearly took him out. Anything after that is…pointless.
You can’t kick a defender out of the way. After 5 was on the ground squirming around…yeah, he fell on the ball. AFTER 21 FROM MEXICO TOOK HIM DOWN.
Geiger blew it. Bad.
Even if he touched the ball, it is because he blatantly was pushed to the ground.
Are you Geiger’s mother? You need glasses.
Even if he intend to smother the ball, that’s in indirect free kick not a PK. You have to watch the full match to really understand how the fix was in. Every single match there are calls a ref can make to decide the out come. Geiger took every chance to decide each of them against Panama.
A handball is ALWAYS a direct free kick! ALWAYS!
Jack ignored the part where it touched his arm while the intentional or unintentional “smothering” took place.
(I think it is a tough handball call, but I think is a tough non-call too)
I actually don’t think he intended to smother the ball, but slipped on the awful field.
With all this brouhaha over the red card, penalties, diving and roughing the ref, Concacaf should really push for the adoption of video review of controversial plays. Since its introduction in the NFL, it has given the refs a refuge in making hard and decisive calls, knowing that they had a backup to avoid determining an important game through a blown call.
This was proposed several years ago, within FIFA but was denied by a block of EXCOM members aligned with UEFA and Blatter. It was supported by various referee organizations. Look how hard it was to get goal line technology and even foamy aftershave line markings . Foamy shaving cream was used by various federations for many years but wasn’t approved by FIFA for use in tournaments until a company, closely aligned with several FIFA members got their product, and only their product, approved by FIFA.
My point is: Play review technology is very mature and is a very good and robust technology and in a tech world, is a very good solution. It has been kept out by highly questionable lobbying and the “old school” and corrupt FIFA officials.
It’s time that USSF lobby Concacaf and FIFA for the experimental use of review technology in domestic leagues an some international play. If indeed, the technology is useful, fast and.more importantly used in the right situations to avoid the outburst we saw in the Panama game, it’s adoption and use will become a useful tool in promoting the sport.
Panama needs to be severely disciplined as a result of their behavior. While some of the calls were questionable at best, you simply cannot treat a referee like that.
Also, Mexico should play a qualifier in an empty stadium due to the debris thrown on the field.
I disagree. Mexico should play a qualifier on top of the debris in an empty stadium. I also want CONCACAF to be disciplined for putting sod on plastic and calling it a quality surface.
Calling the Gold Cup a Mickey Mouse tournament is an insult to Mickey Mouse.
+1
i literally laughed out loud when i read your last sentence!!! Good for you!!!
So does that mean the USMNT has only won something that’s an insult to a mickey mouse tournament?
Why can you simply not treat a referee like that? Is there any justification for that. The referee isn’t the Pope, the referee is just a person, and if a person does something totally inappropriate, then a proportional reaction like yelling at them appears to be justified. A referee should not be able to escape a verbal dressing down, when the referee appears to have been involved in some sort of corruption. The response was normal and proportionate.
I agree. Obviously, any kind of a physical contact with the referee should not be tolerated, but anything else should be fair game. Refs are treated as gods who are not responsible to anyone and don’t have to explain anything to anyone. I’d like to see Geiger at a news conference trying to explain his decisions. Just like I would’ve loved to hear that ref who disallowed Edu’s goal against Slovenia at WC-2010 explain his reasoning. Or the referee who awarded Mexico that bogus penalty in the quarterfinal.
But, we all know how this investigation is going to end up. Panama will be punished; the referees and Mexican thuggish fans will get off scot-free; and CONCACAF will be very pleased with itself.
CONCACAF is going to get the Rose Bowl playoff match it wants and who ever happens to be filling there pockets this week will go home happy. I just hope no one actually thinks this is a real competition anymore.
if they were being honest about rooting out troubling aspects of this Gold Cup, Concacaf would move that playoff to a smaller venue for security purposes. An 1k8 to 20k stadium with adequate security would be appropriate. Avaya in San Jose is ideal
“Totally inappropriate” is putting hands on a player or the like. Poor calls are not totally inappropriate. They are mistakes. And you cannot accuse corruption without proof. Just because it’s fashionable to yell “corruption” doesn’t make it true. That makes it your opinion. And imparting that charge is irresponsible.
Additionally, one of the players (Cooper, I believe) pushed Geiger in the back after Tejada’s red card, Quintero made contact with Geiger after the first penalty, and a player tried to kick Geiger after the game. Please explain how that is normal and proportionate.
Any decision that disciplines Panama for the scrum but fails to punish Mexico for the projectiles will only serve to stoke the fires of the suspicion.
Who is in charge of stadium security — the host (US) or the organizer (CONCACAF)? Shame on whoever was in charge for failing to control the offending fans.
Crazy fan behavior in CONCACAF used to be almost chaming — oh, those passionate fans will do anything to support their team! — but it has become tiresome, scandalous, and, frankly, dangerous. Bottles, batteries, beer, vomit, urine, laser pointers — I’d say it was a circus, but people generally don’t get injured at circuses. If clubs can find and punish people for throwing bananas, why can’t CONCACAF and its members find and punish these lunatics?
In other sports when they catch someone committing this kind of behavior, they will ban them from attending that sport’s events for different periods of time; sometimes for life. Soccer needs to do that, too.And all cases of assault should be treated as assault. People shouldn’t be given a free pass just because it’s a sporting event.
You obviously don’t have a clue as to the major underlying problem here. This type of thinking is more in line with the problem then a potential solution. Get a clue.
I was kinda of happy to see Costa Rica and Panama get eliminated. I would been happier to see Mexico get eliminated.
Anyone remember Matt Besler’s red card in Costa Rica.
Blas Perez would do anything to win. I know he didn’t fall on the ball but sometimes in life you pay for the reputation you’ve developed.
Everyone involved should get investigated and both teams should be punished.
Hopefully Jamaica wins and MLS gets some respect.
Concacaf won’t allow Jamaica to win
I agree, you can’t treat a ref like that.
I would like to see MLS/CONCACAF go for players arguing be ejected. Just stop it fully. In baseball you can’t argue balls and strikes or you are gonzo. It makes it much more civil when they do say something in to the ump. Easily ignored. And it should be ignored. The ref needs to make his calls, they won’t always be right, in close calls they will always be controversial.
It doesn’t mean the ref is on the take, unlike my singing says, it doesn’t mean he is smoking something, it means it is a tough call he should be allowed to make.
Maybe make it only the captain can talk, or only the coach, but masses gathering around or violent yelling you get from some players just feeds the problem.
What problem? Read the rest of the posters here.
Nothing will ever happen to the Mexicans.
Right…..Let’s investigate Panama but disgraceful Mexican fans get a free pass. Makes sense.