Protest E-Mails to Concacaf

[sstackho]

Here are the e-mail addresses in a format you can paste into your e-mail header:

jack.warner@concacaf.net, LAustinBRB@aol.com, gcanedow@msn.com, captainburrell@hotmail.com, salsan@itelgua.com, chuck.blazer@concacaf.net, futbol@inder.co.cu, ronaldelias46@hotmail.com

[EDITED to remove e-mails that bounced]

[George]

I sent mine.

I hope that this is not the end.

Canada soccer fans have a chance to show Jack what they think at the U-20. He must be booed mercilessly...

[Grizzly]

Why don't we do a press release like we did with the CSA coaching debacle and send it to various media outlets including those in the US. The only way CONCACAF is going to get less corrupt is if a media spotlight is shone on their corruption. We could use Jefferey's e-mail as the basis for a press release. Plus, the more stink we can make about the reffing in this Gold Cup the harder it will be for CONCACAF to pull the same thing again when it really matters in WCQ.

[Gian-Luca]

My email was much shorter, but feel free to use this language (comprising the gist of the protest) in any release:

As a Canadian fan soccer I am somewhat disgusted and sick to my stomach at the incompetent officiating that has just caused Canada to lose to the US in the 2007 Gold Cup semi-final. There is no criteria whatsoever that could make the linesman’s decision to rule the Canadian player offside the correct call. Please have those responsible review the game tape and make the correct decision to play the extra time.

These sorts of calls hurt the credibility of the Gold Cup and will have an adverse effect on the popularity of the tournament and international soccer in this region. Please do what you can to ensure the right thing is done.

[The Beaver]

We need to send something to FIFA, though I don't know who. The CSA also needs to lodge an official complaint/appeal. At minimum, this official should NEVER officiate one of our games.

The CSA could also consider hiring a private investigator, but I suspect scant funds could be spent better elsewhere.

[JamesW]

Hello sir,

I, like every other Voyageur, am very upset with the recent offside call that put Canada out of the 2007 Gold Cup. Now I am not here to ask for you to replay the game, as what has been done has been done. But I would like to ask you to review the play, acknowledge the problem and punish the guilty so a mistake like this will not happen again.

Thanks,

~James Wadsworth

That is what I said. Short and to the point.

If one of you wants to write something up for the home page, send it to me and I will have it up ASAP.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

(Here it is in Spanish, maybe one of the native Sp speakers could check it for me. I should be asleep but am so wired after that, just sick to my stomach.)

Señor

Como hincha de la selección nacional de Canadá, socio de la peña de hinchas Voyageurs, y seguidor de la Copa de Oro, quisiera protestar por las decisiones técnicas incompetentes que han negado a Canadá la oportunidad de jugar la final de la competición.

No sabemos si Canadá hubiera derrotado a EEUU en la semi-final; sí sabemos, pero, que Canadá merecía poder intentarlo en igualdad de condiciones en el tiempo extra.

Es claro también que Canadá marcó un gol perfectamente legal, algo admitido incluso por la prensa de EEUU y algunos miembros de su selección y equipo técnico.

El comité ejecutivo de Concacaf y su comité de árbitros no puede ignorar decisiones escandalosamente erróneas como la que vimos en el semi-final entre Canadá y EEUU.

Cada uno de ustedes debería sentirse avergonzado por dirigir una confederación que determina resultados a base de razones que no tiene nada que ver con los principios del juego limpio (como ya hemos visto con el favoritismo mostrado hacia la selección mexicana con algunas decisiones arbitrales).

Ahora es el momento que la Copa de Oro cambie de anfitrión de manera permanente, y para que los árbitros dejen de favorecer a EEUU y a México para proteger intereses económicos, como es el caso actualmente.

Durante la Copa de Mundo sub-20 que tomará lugar en Canadá próximamente, para los seguidores de Canadá el Sr. Jack Warner y los miembros de comités Concacaf se consideraran personas non grata si no saben responder de manera adecuada a esta burla del juego limpio.

Los seguidores de la selección de Canadá exigimos lo siguiente:

-La suspensión de sus funciones inmediata del equipo arbitral del semi-final Canadá-EEUU, para que no participen en más competiciones oficiales del Concacaf.

-Una revisión y informe sobre el partido del comité de árbitros del Concacaf, junto con una admisión de la decisión errónea que quitó a Canadá un gol legal.

-Dado ciertas decisiones por parte del Sr. Archundia contra Canadá (incluido un partido en Edmonton para la clasificación para el último mundial con decisiones escandalosas y "de robo", tal y como reconoció la prensa mundial) pedimos que no se designe ningún partido con una selección nacional de Canadá a Benito Archundia mientras este en activo.

Muy atentamente,

Jeffrey Swartz

Barcelona/Vancouver

[JamesW]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

My email was much shorter, but feel free to use this language (comprising the gist of the protest) in any release

Mind if I throw something like what you said onto the home page while we wait for a more official Voyageurs release?

[Alex]

Ive sent mine, thanks guys, lets make some noise at least and when these bastards show their heads in the U-20s let them know that we can be hostile.

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by Jamit

Mind if I throw something like what you said onto the home page while we wait for a more official Voyageurs release?

Not at all, go right ahead.

[Luis_Rancagua]

Guys, I've already send my e-mail with my strong f***** opinions. I really don't care if CONCACAF gets deeply offended by my strong comments.

[JamesW]

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/en/viewarticle.asp?id=179

Let me know how to improve or give me something new, I really don't care.

[The Beaver]

Jeffrey, excellent idea sending something in Spanish. Hope the nards in central america don't find your spanish to elevated for their colonial sensibilities. We should translate Jeffrey's note into English and French, too, and send it to CONCACAF, and FIFA.

And yes, this IS the time for us to draft and send a press release to the media. The letter should raise the broader issue of CONCACAF's legitimacy and credibility, how poor officiating destroys both these things, how it is vital that CONCACAF, with pressure from its member associations and FIFA, clean up the officiating, make fair the organization of tournaments such as the Gold Cup, and raise its overall "game" so that it competes head-to-head with the best confederations in the world for transparency, excellent officiating, equitable organization, class and professionalism. We can use a handful of instances from the Gold Cup to provide the context for our complaint--for our challenge--with a special focus on the botched offside call in today's game. Officiating like this is an emarassment to the region, a detriment to the development of the quality of football in the region, and a sad commentary on CONCACAF's efforts for legitimacy, credibility and world-class professionalism. (Or something like that.)

[Glenn]

quote:Originally posted by Jamit

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/en/viewarticle.asp?id=179

Let me know how to improve or give me something new, I really don't care.

I might change "that has just caused Canada to lose to the US" to "that has negated Canada's draw against the US," and criteria is plural, but otherwise it looks good to me.

What about putting the e-mail addresses right under the article?

Thanks for getting this up so quickly.

[Lord Bob]

I know that sending this will do nothing and it won't even be read.

But you know what? It stil felt good.

"Dear Mr. Warner, the vice-presidents and executives of CONCACAF, members of the FIFA Executive Committee, and members of the Men's National Team Competition Committee:

No doubt, in the past several hours, you have received several irate e-mails from football supporters around the world lamenting the offense supposedly perpetrated against the Canadian men's national team on June 21, when the Canadians, having seemingly tied the match in stoppage time, were forced to endure a defeat that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Associated Press, and others have all referred to as "controversial".

I am an impassioned Canadian football fan, but I am not here to complain about that call.

Football is like any sport, in that referees and referees' assistants will make poor calls from time to time. When a poor call costs a team a slot in a tournament final, it is tragic. Yet, with the countless competitions under FIFA's aegis every year, it will inevitably happen to somebody.

The problem is that this keeps happening in CONCACAF. Canadian fans need no reminder of when the very referee in question, Benito Archundia, caused another disputed defeat which cost Canada a chance to qualify for the World Cup in 2004. And the recent history of the federation is littered with recent examples, as referees with a proven history of embarrassing gaffes are reassigned to important matches where they can once again stumble over themselves. To fans, it is the most frustrating situation possible: the mistakes continue to be made, and yet no referees are ever asked to stand accountable for their actions.

When a manager cannot control his players, he is sacked. When a player cannot keep up with the play, he is released. When a referee repeatedly fails in his mission to call a fair and accurate game, he is given chance after chance, as though loyalty to the inept and unpopular is more important than upholding the integrity of a tournament.

I do not join in the clamour for a replay, or for Archundia to be dangled off a tall building, or any such drastic measures, because they would just be band-aid solutions. What I want, the only thing I want, is change. I want to wake up one day, a few months from now, and realise that CONCACAF refereeing is no longer a punchline.

Sincerely,

[name omitted]

Edmonton, Alberta

June 21, 2007"

[MikeD]

Here's my letter - I borrowed elements from others posted above and added my own piece as well.

(Sent to Jack Warner and CCd to the rest of the executive committee. I also intend to forward a copy to the CSA if I can track down an appropriate email address tomorrow.)

Dear Mr. Warner:

I am writing to protest the incorrect technical decision which has cost Canada the opportunity to compete in the Gold Cup final, and to suggest how CONCACAF officiating might be improved. It is clear that the Canadian player who scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time was onside, and was incorrectly held to be offside by the Assistant Referee. It was not even close. The Canadian goal should therefore have counted, and the match should have gone to an extra period.

Such incompetent officiating harms the prestige of the Gold Cup and CONCACAF.

The CONCACAF Executive Committee must do more to improve the poor standard of officiating in major CONCACAF competitions, such as the Gold Cup and CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. Such blatantly incorrect decisions should simply not occur in the semi-final of the regional championship. I urge the Executive Committee to:

1) Instruct the Referees Committee to review the Canada-US semi-final match carefully and reconsider whether any of the officials assigned to this match are competent enough to be assigned to such important matches in the future;

2) Ensure that the Technical Reports on the match, and the tournament as a whole, acknowledge the incorrect technical decision on the goal that was disallowed; and

3) Prevent officials from a country that is competing in the semi-finals of a competition from officiating in the other semi-final, as this is a clear conflict of interest.

With respect to this third recommendation, I note that the referee of the Canada-US semi-final match was from Mexico and Mexico was competing in the other semi-final match later in the evening. This put the referee in a conflict of interest, not only because the outcome of the Canada-US semi-final determined his home association's potential opponent in the final, but also because disciplinary cards assigned by this referee could result in the suspension of players for the championship match in which his home association has a direct competitive interest. This obvious conflict of interest further harms the prestige of the Gold Cup and CONCACAF, and the Executive Committee should put appropriate regulations in place to prevent referees with such conflicts from being assigned to matches in these circumstances.

As President of CONCACAF, I trust that you will bring these issues to the Executive Committee at the earliest opportunity and do your utmost to improve the woefully poor standard of officiating that now plagues major CONCACAF competitions.

[TFCnation]

Sent!! Heres what I wrote:

For the first time in a long time I have seen my country play the quality of soccer thats required to qualify for the world cup. This quality of play has now been compensated by forces that should never play into the final result of a game.

This poorly officiated result affects not only Canada but the quality of the CONCACAF.

Do whats right. Even if all that means is to acknowledge a mistake has been made. At least some faith will be restored in Canada.

Either way CONCACAF cannot conitinue on like its made the correct call.

Thank You.

-Canadian Soccer Supprter, Ashveer Dhillon

[Guest Dave]

wonderful stuff everyone! Jeffrey, if you are awake yet this morning, do you have that media email list on hand? I think we have plenty of well-written material for you to send out to media outlets in time to make Friday's afternoon editions. I fear if we wait for the weekend editions it may be too late as reporters will be away.... so we really only have a few hours to act.

In my opinion, the way forward is:

1. email to media to raise the issue. Stress that we are not asking for a replay, what's done is done. Rather, we are asking that CONCACAF officiating be cleaned up in time for WCQ, with FIFA oversight if necessary.

2. email to CSA requesting they protest with CONCACAF and FIFA both. Follow up with paper letteer. Media pressure should prevent CSA from ignoring us.

3. Link up with American soccer fans, and urge them to join us on this. Of course we don't expect them to ask for a replay or anything. But they have also been victimized by poor officiating in the past, and in this case as mentioned above there was a clear conflict of interest since the Mexican ref had motivation to hand out lots of yellow cards to US players to get them suspended from the US-Mex final. Some US fans will likely laugh at us, but if even a few add their voices to ours it will give us added clout in this. I Know that many Americans are as embarassed by CONCACRAP officiating as we are, even when it benefits them (in the short term).

4.follow up email to CSA and media on the eve of the WYC to ask what progress has been made toward resolving the CONCACAF officiating scandal *Use the word "Scandal" wherever possible as it will take on a life of its own.

5. designate one or two well spoken Voyageurs to give media interviews during the WYC on the "CONCACAF officiating scandal". The whole world will be watching, as they say. Hopefully we get some airplay in the UK, US, European, South American media as well. We must hold Jack Warner's feet to the fire in front of the whole world.

This can work, but only if we use the right levers. The CSA may be incompetent and may not give a damn, but can be forced to act via media pressure on the eve of the WYC. There may appear to be corruption in CONCACAF, but their hand can be forced by FIFA. FIFA will respond to media pressure as well, especially during WYC.

Our players deserve to know that we will go to the wall for them, as they do for us.

[Guest Dave]

wonderful stuff everyone! Jeffrey, if you are awake yet this morning, do you have that media email list on hand? I think we have plenty of well-written material for you to send out to media outlets in time to make Friday's afternoon editions. I fear if we wait for the weekend editions it may be too late as reporters will be away.... so we really only have a few hours to act.

In my opinion, the way forward is:

1. email to media to raise the issue. Stress that we are not asking for a replay, what's done is done. Rather, we are asking that CONCACAF officiating be cleaned up in time for WCQ, with FIFA oversight if necessary.

2. email to CSA requesting they protest with CONCACAF and FIFA both. Follow up with paper letteer. Media pressure should prevent CSA from ignoring us.

3. Link up with American soccer fans, and urge them to join us on this. Of course we don't expect them to ask for a replay or anything. But they have also been victimized by poor officiating in the past, and in this case as mentioned above there was a clear conflict of interest since the Mexican ref had motivation to hand out lots of yellow cards to US players to get them suspended from the US-Mex final. Some US fans will likely laugh at us, but if even a few add their voices to ours it will give us added clout in this. I Know that many Americans are as embarassed by CONCACRAP officiating as we are, even when it benefits them (in the short term).

4.follow up email to CSA and media on the eve of the WYC to ask what progress has been made toward resolving the CONCACAF officiating scandal *Use the word "Scandal" wherever possible as it will take on a life of its own.

5. designate one or two well spoken Voyageurs to give media interviews during the WYC on the "CONCACAF officiating scandal". The whole world will be watching, as they say. Hopefully we get some airplay in the UK, US, European, South American media as well. We must hold Jack Warner's feet to the fire in front of the whole world.

This can work, but only if we use the right levers. The CSA may be incompetent and may not give a damn, but can be forced to act via media pressure on the eve of the WYC. There may appear to be corruption in CONCACAF, but their hand can be forced by FIFA. FIFA will respond to media pressure as well, especially during WYC.

Our players deserve to know that we will go to the wall for them, as they do for us.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

Gee Dave, you were up late too in NB.

The only problem I see here is that the consensuated letter must be written, and noone has done so. I mean a letter from Canadian fans, or from Voyageurs, that is appropriate for the receiver. We have done acceptable letters on a personal basis, but not as a group.

We haven't done one for the CSA, nor one for the press.

I really don't have time, am up only 5 hours after signing off but have a kid on vacations today. So if anyone is game, draft it. The success of the last Protest Letter was Grizzly especially drafting something good from the start, and on top of that doing new versions in function of comments. Otherwise, we are not there.

[Guest Dave]

I tried to sleep but couldn't. I wish I had used that energy to write the letter myself instead of tossing and turning for three hours. I'm way too tired now, but if I wake up prior to noon and if no one else has done it I will write something, if there is general agreement that I do so. I really hope someone else does it first though, since noon may be too late for the media pressure we need going into the weekend. Can someone please do this in the morning? Take a sick day from work if you must... your country needs you.

[Grizzly]

Like Jeffrey I am a bit too busy at the moment to write this. El Hombre did a lot of work on the last press release so maybe he might have time. I think the more stink we, the media and the CSA can raise about this the better because it will make it harder for CONCACAF to do this again in WCQ and will lessen the chances of us getting Archundia as a ref in that tournament. It could turn out to be a good thing in the end as it might improve our chance in WCQ which is a lot more important than the Gold Cup.

Another idea might be some anti-Warner chants at the Canada-Chile U-20 game in Toronto that I think he and other FIFA officials will be attending. Maybe something like Jack Warner's corrupt or Jack Warner's a crook.

[PunjabiOil]

Email sent.

[Joe Keeper]

I sent mine. who knows if it will do any good....

I think we would get farther if we sturred the media up about this. Lets give them some ammo from the past as well.

Dear CONCACAF Staff,

I, like many others in the ranks of Canadian soccer fans am writing to voice my absolute outrage at the officiating in the last minutes of my country's Gold Cup semi final match against the United States this evening.

There is no clear delusion among any fan of my nation's national team, as well as many other nations fans, and the world media that the offside call made by the officials tonight was completely erroneous and that the goal should have been allowed to stand. The fact that this type of horrendous mistake was made at this level of international competition is completely unacceptable to the people whom believe in our sport, countries and CONCACAF football in general.

The most outrageous point is that this level of incompetent refereeing can be common place in our confederation. I am completely embarrassed to say that my nation plays in this confederation, and I am embarrassed to say that I was finally beginning to believe in CONCACAF again, after watching some of the wonderful referring in the earlier stages of the tourney.

It is utterly insulting to Supporters of the Gold Cup to do anything less than:

-Suspend the utterly amateur refereeing crew of Mr. Benito Archundia, pending a full assessment of their ability to competently officiate international matches.

- Have your full Technical Committee review the proceeding of the match and the incident of Canadas disallowed goal.

- Have open, transparent communications with Fifa and the international media about the matter.

If CONCACAF is to come out of this with our respect again, we must see that the proper actions are taken.

Please show us that CONCACAF cares about the quality of its football and most of all, about its fans.

Yours Sincerely,

name ommited

Canadian supporter and once believer in our Gold Cup.

[georg]

Sent the following...

Very surprise that FIFA will let the score of the game stand without checking replaying as to why the second legit Canadian was called off side. Wonder why in Canada and other countries in CONCACAF believe the tournament is fixed to have Mexico and US in the final. If this happened in the Euro Championship there would be major outcry.

Another Ref Blowout for America....interesting.

P.S. Tried sending it to FIFA HQ but would not accept----- Subject:"Gold Cup" Wonder Why?