Mexican association refuses to budge despite boycott threat
Mexico's football chief is holding firm in front of demands by over a dozen players on the national team for him to sack one of his top executives.
Led by Mexico national team captain and New York Red Bulls defender, Rafael Marquez, as many as 13 players are threatening to boycott upcoming international matches if the Mexican Football Federation does
not meet their demands to oust their third-ranking official and the head of the national team selections, Nestor De La Torre.
"Around here nobody sits down to talk demanding conditions," Decio De Maria, the secretary general of the federation, said in response to the demands. "Nobody sits at the table with conditions about how
to fix a problem. Nestor is the director and his head is not on the table as a condition for talks."
All has not been well in the Mexican camp ever since they were eliminated in the quarter-final of the World Cup this summer by Argentina. But things really began to get out of hand when players sent a
letter to the federation criticizing De La Torre for making public the details of a party which took place after an international friendly between Mexico and Colombia in Monterrey, and which resulted in the handing out of various fines and suspensions. Mentioned
in the conditions of that letter was the resignation of De La Torre.
Sanctions were announced last week following the incident in Monterrey where Carlos Vela and Efrain Juarez were both suspended for six months and 11 other players including Marquez, Torrado, Javier Hernandez,
Giovanni dos Santos, Guillermo Ochoa, Francisco Rodriguez, Andres Guardado, Pablo Barrera, Hector Esqueda, Hector Moreno and Carlos Salcido received fines.
Mexico's next international match is on 12 October in Juarez when they will play host to Venezuela. De Maria was adamant about pointing out that anyone on Mexico's current international roster could be
selected. De Maria also pointed out that he had spoken with Marquez and Cruz Azul forward Gerardo Torrado.
"All of us can improve the situation. The most effective thing is that both sides talk," said De Maria.
Tags: