FMF, judge and executioner in match-fixing

Following the sanctions imposed by the Mexican Football Federation on seven players from Real Apodaca and Correcaminos in the second and third divisions, for apparent links to betting and sports-fixing, the Mexican Football Federation established an investigation in which they acted as investigators and judges , without the endorsement of any national judiciary (legal entity) for this purpose. For this reason, sports lawyer Enrique Ornelas Soler, claims that it is practically impossible to prove these acts and accused the Mexican Football Federation of not handling these matters correctly, even though the alleged video call in which several players agree to "work the matches" to get favorable goal odds in bets that apparently arose in Europe has already been leaked.

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The material, released by TUDN , shows a video call in which some players from these teams talk to an alleged group of gamblers about the manipulation of the matches.

In the conversation, a strategy that favors those involved is mentioned. “What can be done? We had agreed to do the first half, do you understand me? They say that the visiting team will probably also go to work. The idea is for us to do things first and do the work,” can be heard in the recording. "They have a modus operandi in which their statutes, Code of Ethics and Regulations have many errors in their guidelines. They are only bound to FIFA's rules and they are the only ones they follow. They never interact with the Mexican government," he said.

Outside FIFA

The lawyer, with more than 25 years of experience, points out that Mexico has a Commission for Appeals and Arbitration in Sport. However, the FMF is currently the only national sports federation that is not linked to said commission. Instead, it operates solely under the statutes of FIFA.

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For this specialist, there is no real way to prove or measure the participation of athletes in bets of this kind. “Unfortunately for these players today, if they bet on an appeal, it is the same committee of the Mexican Football Federation that decides whether or not to admit their evidence, since there is no bias by an independent area that decides it. They are not going to win the lawsuit against the FMF .” Enrique stated that Femexfut itself, in some part of its guidelines, has certain legal loopholes in the recognition of relatives or family members, by including non-close relatives as links to carry out these practices. “There is no way to prove that against a player.” Although Ornelas believes that there is always the possibility of obtaining a favorable appeal, in the specific case of these seven players he sees a FMF system with notable flaws. These flaws range from the short time periods given to file an appeal to the corresponding procedures.