LOS ANGELES – FIFA has gone from threats to action. #ElGrito has originated about twenty fines and warnings. The ultimatum terrifies Yon de Luisa: two World Cups slip from his hands because of a scream.
“It is part of our folklore”, said Guillermo Cantú and Decio de María at the time. A folkloric accolade to #ElGrito.
Victor Montagliani, President of Concacaf and Vice President of FIFA, repelled them. “For us (Concacaf and FIFA) it is not a folk cry, it is an insult, and it must stop.”
The previous FMF administration let it go. He let it grow. He adopted it. He fostered it with his passive complicity or his passive accomplice. Today, it seems unstoppable.
If Mexico has not been able to eradicate the scream from its League and its stadiums, what capacity or authority does it have to eradicate it from the United States? Hypocrisy. It pretends to be a lamp for the street and darkness for your home.
The reality is that Mexico can miss the Qatar 2022 World Cup, but also lose the alternate venue it has assigned for the 2026 World Cup.
Already in that open letter to the Mexican fan (https://espndeportes.espn.com/blogs/index?nombre=rafa_ramos&entryID=8762753), we warned that this ultimatum was already on the FMF desk. And that there was already hysteria and impotence on the part of the federatives, and also on the part of the master and lord of the federatives.
Mexico has two immediate friendlies: against Panama (June 30 in Nashville) and against Nigeria (July 3 in Los Angeles), before getting into the Gold Cup. That is, it is going to get the hell out of it.
These two games are a direct commitment to SUM, which so far has made its own effort to protect its goose that lays the golden eggs: to raise awareness before and during the games, and to multiply vigilance within the stages.
We warned a few days ago that the FMF should demand from SUM that both games be played behind closed doors, as a reprimand to a few who refuse to eradicate #ElGrito. But, greed rules.
If it dares such disciplinary repression, that of keeping the stadiums empty, the FMF should compensate SUM. The box office in each of those games should be around two million dollars.
In the case of the game against Panama, the National Team will not attend, but the Olympic team, although in the advertising about this match, it is assured that it will be the same representative that will be in the Gold Cup. Deception, then.
On the other hand, both parties, in Nashville and Los Angeles, would be a magnificent catalyst to test the new campaign that the FMF intends to guide against #ElGrito, as a new desperate measure, to prevent Mexico from missing the 2022 and 2026 World Cups. .
And those games would also serve for the fans themselves to denounce those who violate the regulations of each stadium: racist, discriminatory or homophobic manifestations, they will imply from the expulsion from the stage, to jail and a fine, or the veto for life.
Yon de Luisa knows that he has time to reconsider that sector of people who seem to be more frenzied fans of #ElGrito than of the Mexican National Team itself.
Be careful: if necessary, the FMF is willing to sacrifice the Gold Cup, in order to save the qualifiers, and of course the World Cup in Qatar and the venue for the 2026 World Cup.
De Luisa is willing for Mexico to be punished in the middle of the Gold Cup. For the FMF to be eliminated from the Conkakafkian competition, which can also happen on the field, it would not represent a great financial cost, as it would be to lose Qatar 2022, but, Mainly, the headquarters of 2026.
Because, beware: at the FIFA Congress, prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the issue of #ElGrito may be placed on the table, and it can occur from a radical warning, until it is simply voted whether Mexico should be considered as one of the three venues by 2026.
Yes, it is true, if FIFA were so virtuous, chaste, pure, pristine in its actions, it would not have awarded the 2018 venues to Russia, and Qatar 2022, given its abominable homophobic positions, much, much more serious than #ElGrito itself.
But, it is known that FIFA is a whitewashed grave. While the #FairPlay flag is waving, it has sponsored, on the other hand, sponsored all kinds of misdeeds. He has no qualms about killing the cow with one hand and lifting its leg with the other.
Perhaps, then, it is necessary for Mexican soccer to reach extreme circumstances, the problem is how far greed, the Pharisee behavior of the FMF, will allow it to go.
Will you understand that it is time to lose pennies to keep the dollars? If he does, he will have to start with indemnifying SUM, and play, against Panama and Nigeria, behind closed doors. And if you don’t dare, then resign yourself to Yon de Luisa’s sinister plan: lose the Gold Cup and be out of the group stage.
Because in addition, to be out of the Gold Cup, would imply blame crudely and comfortably, the Mexican fans in the United States, and wash their hands, like a modern Pontius Pilatos.
And perhaps he is right, within that voluminous cynicism. And if you really want to strike a blow of authority, punish yourself. That is, in the first game of the Gold Cup, against a rival yet to be defined, if the howl of his fans appears, withdraw from the competition.
Will Yon de Luisa dare to make a historic decision? Will they allow it from the Oval Room of Televisa? Hardly.
For now, that is the shocking crisis that the FMF faces because of its previous cowardice: losing two World Cups for a scream.