The Cachirules scandal was a 1988
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
scandal in which the
Mexican Football Federation
The Mexican Football Federation (; abbreviated as Femexfut or FMF) is the governing body of association football in Mexico. It adm the Mexico national team, the Liga MX and all affiliated amateur sectors, and controls promoting, organizing, direc ...
(FEMEXFUT) was found to have knowingly used at least four overage players (Gerardo Jiménez, José de la Fuente,
José Luis Mata, and Aurelio Rivera) on the
Mexico under-20 team which played at the
1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament
The 1988 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was held in Guatemala, although it has also been reported that the tournament was held in Trinidad and Tobago. It also served as qualification for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship.
Qualification
Ot ...
, a qualification tournament for the
1989 FIFA World Youth Championship
The 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989. The 1989 championship was the 7th contested. The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta'if.
Qualification
...
.
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, the world governing body, imposed a severe sanction on FEMEXFUT, banning all Mexican teams from international competition for two years from 25 April 1988 to 1 July 1990. As a result, the
Mexico national football team
The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF.
Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...
were ineligible for the
1990 FIFA World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...
. The scandal has been considered a turning point in the history of
football in Mexico
Mexico's most popular sport is football (called fútbol in Mexico). , the top tier leagues in Mexico are Liga MX for the men and the Liga MX Femenil for women.
In Mexico, football became a professional men's sport in 1943. Since then, Mexico ...
[Video del reportaje del 20 aniversario del escándalo de Los Cachirules – Parte 2]
''ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
.'' Retrieved 2010-01-01. and North America in general.
CONCACAF U-20 Tournament
Mexico and other national youth teams of the
CONCACAF
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...
region were required to finish in first or second place in the
1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament
The 1988 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was held in Guatemala, although it has also been reported that the tournament was held in Trinidad and Tobago. It also served as qualification for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship.
Qualification
Ot ...
hosted in
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
during April 1988 in order to qualify for the
1989 FIFA World Youth Championship
The 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989. The 1989 championship was the 7th contested. The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta'if.
Qualification
...
in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Earlier in the same year,
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
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 ages over the regulatory limit). The maximum age established by FIFA for the participation of footballers in the Youth World Championship was 20 years.
Mexico played their first two matches against
Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
, winning by scores of 9–0 and 2–0, and then against the
host team, again winning both matches, 2–1 and 3–0. This last victory occurred on 20 April 1988, with forward Gerardo Jiménez scoring a goal, securing first place in their group and qualification to the World Youth Championship.
Investigation
Journalist Antonio Moreno from the Mexican public TV network
Imevisión
The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión (''Mexican Television Institute''), known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks ...
(now ''
TV Azteca
TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national ...
'') 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
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...
for the qualification tournament in Guatemala.
[ 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.][Video del reportaje del 20 aniversario del escándalo de Los Cachirules – Parte 1]
''ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
.'' Retrieved 2010-01-01.
Antonio Moreno, however, was backed up by fellow ''Imevisión'' journalist José Ramón Fernández
José Ramón Fernández Álvarez (November 4, 1923 – January 6, 2019) was a Cuban Communist leader who was a vice-president of the Council of Ministers.
Pre-Revolution life
Fernández Alvarez was born in Santiago de Cuba, where he studied ...
, 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 also over the age limit, by three years, and defender Aurelio Rivera was four years over.[ Rivera, team captain at the time, has declared in later interviews that every member of the squad was over age, although such affirmation has not been verified.]
The information was widely spread on televised and written media in Mexico and inevitably reached the United States Soccer Federation
The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...
, who submitted an official complaint to CONCACAF, demanding the case be investigated, after its youth team failed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. The Guatemalan Football Federation joined the protest. 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.
Consequences
On 19 June 1988, CONCACAF determined that the ages of the four players (Jiménez, de la Fuente, Mata, and Rivera) were in fact false, and Mexico was disqualified from participation in the Saudi Arabia Youth World Championship.
Further, several officials were banned for life (but not the team coach Francisco Avilán
Francisco Avilán Cruz (27 August 1947 – 5 February 2021) was a Mexican footballer and football manager.
Early life
Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Avilán's father was an amateur footballer and his brother, Arnulfo, played for Monterrey. His ...
), 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. With the disqualification of Mexico, the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
replaced Mexico in qualifying for the World Youth Championship and, along with Costa Rica, were the two CONCACAF representatives.
Rafael del Castillo traveled to Zurich on 22 June 1988 and attempted to appeal before FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, hoping to overturn his life ban issued by CONCACAF; no regard was given to the situation of Mexico's football suspension. The Mexico executives arrived at the FIFA headquarters confident of the influence that Guillermo Cañedo might have within world football's governing body, but they did not achieve the expected results.
On 30 June 1988, FIFA not only upheld CONCACAF's decision to eject the Mexican U-20 team from the World Youth Championship, but also barred ''all'' Mexican national teams, including the senior team, from all FIFA-sanctioned international competition for two years, retrospective to 25 April. This penalty not only disqualified Mexico from the 1988 Olympic tournament in Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, but also meant they were banned from entering the qualifying for the 1990 World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being M ...
in Italy. Guatemala replaced Mexico at the 1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
, and along with the United States were the two CONCACAF representatives.
Previous violators of age limits had only received bans from underage competitions. FIFA believed these past sanctions had had little effect, and said the harsher punishment was intended "to serve as a strong warning".
The following week, FIFA selected the United States as hosts for the 1994 World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...
; a conspiracy theory holds that Mexico's disqualification from the 1990 tournament was intended to make it easier for the U.S. team to qualify, and so drum up interest in the sport there.[; ]
After the disqualification, Mexico has never been able to surpass the round of 16 since their return to the tournament in 1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
, thus making the 1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal ente ...
the last time the national football team ever reached the quarter-finals. Some believe that the 4th match is cursed by scandal.
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.
Another possible origin of the word refers to a TV character of the 1950s and 1960s called ''Cachirulo'', created by Enrique Alonso for the younger audiences in the first years of television in Mexico. Nicknaming the name "cachirules" alluded to the fact that in the same way that Alonso, who played ''Cachirulo'', being younger than the actor portraying him, the footballers implied in the scandal were feigning to be younger than they actually were.
See also
* Age fraud in association football Age fraud is age fabrication or the use of false documentation to gain an advantage over opponents. In football, it is common amongst players belonging to nations where records are not easily verifiable. The media often refer to the player with fals ...
References
{{Mexico national football team
1987–88 in Mexican football
Mexico national football team
Association football controversies
CONCACAF Under-20 Championship
Age controversies