An interesting tidbit for CSN readers on the opening day of the final round of Concacaf’s World Cup qualifying. Back at the beginning of January, media outlets in Central America cited official sources in reporting that Fifa had designating one of today’s matches -- Panama against Costa Rica at the Rommel Fernández stadium in Panama City -- “high-risk” from a security standpoint and appointed a special envoy (David Sabir from Bermuda) to monitor the match.
At the time, Pedro Chaluja, president of Federación Panameña de Fútbol (roughly, the Panamanian version of the CSA) said Fifa hadn’t even told him about the match being a security risk, nevermind the reasons behind why. You can read up on what such a designation involves here, but basically it means extra precautions will be taken to ensure everything proceeds safely on and off the pitch. Generally it's invoked to deal with matches where there's a high likelihood of violence between rival fan groups.
This isn’t totally unusual in Concacaf. Last year World Cup qualifying matches involving Costa Rica and El Salvador received a similar designation. But because Fifa didn't address why the match in Panama is considered a risk, and given that local authorities aren't expecting widespread fan violence, the reasoning behind Fifa's decision is somewhat mysterious. That is, until we consider a possible Canadian connection.
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On the January 11 episode of the weekly ESPN Deportes podcast “Destino Brasil*,” Concacaf secretary general Enrique Sanz said the high-risk designation stemmed from an official complaint Canada made to Fifa regarding incidents during the World Cup qualifier the men's team played at Rommel Fernández last September. He didn't elaborate, but the show’s hosts said in a later segment that the complaint was related to objects being thrown on the pitch.
I contacted the CSA on January 14 in an attempt to get more information on this supposed complaint. A spokesperson responded but I’m still waiting for any kind of confirmation as to whether Canada actually made this complaint. Inquiries to Concacaf media officials have so far gone unanswered.
I would have guessed any complaint from the CSA surrounding that ill-fated Panama match would be related to all the noise making outside the Canada’s team’s hotel the night prior to the match. What are the long-term ramifications of all this? Probably very little, although it could signal that the CSA will be more aggressive in ensuring our national teams compete in the best conditions possible when travelling to Central America. I'll update the story when I hear something from the CSA.
*Unfortunately ESPN seems to remove their podcasts about two weeks after the broadcast date. I was unable to pull it up in either iTunes or TuneIn Radio, although a version of the show still exists on my phone and I can send the audio file if anyone is interested in listening to it.