El Hombre Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 quote:Originally posted by 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 took a run at it. Combined bits and pieces of many different emails. Comments/suggestions are always appreciated. BY no means is this the official Voyageurs standpoint, I just thought I'd get the ball rolling on an official release. As Canadian soccer fans, the Voyageurs are protesting the result of the Canada - United States Gold Cup semi-final game played on June 21st. This hard fought and exciting game was unfortunately ruined in the end by incompetent refereeing. We feel that this is an endemic problem in CONCACAF. In this particular game, Canada fought back from a 2-0 deficit only to have what would've been the tying goal negated by an incorrect offside call. As the game ended shortly thereafter, Canada was denied the chance to play for the win in extra time. Whether Canada would have gone on to beat the USA we do not know; it is clear, however, that Canada deserved at least to try in equal conditions in an extra period. While we recognize that what's done is done and little can be done to change what happened, we do believe that a serious and thorough review of the incident in question and the officiating in our region as a whole, should take place. The Voyageurs demand the following: 1) The Referees Committee must 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) A full review and report on the match from your technical committee, including recognition of the erroneous decision that deprived Canada of a legitimate goal. Incidents like what transpired on June 21st hurt the credibility of the Gold Cup and will have a negative effect on the popularity of the tournament and international soccer in this region. 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 not occur in such an important game in our regional championship. The Voyageurs ask that CONCACAF takes action on this issue and does what it can to ensure that the right thing is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack Great work guys, I saw this email on the U-Sector forum: REFEREES COMMITTEE Ronald Elias Gutierrez E-Mail: ronaldelias46@hotmail.com Well its a hotmail address. But thanks none the less, I'll have to an email out to someone out shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Guys, keep sending your email protest to CONCACAF. The fight is only beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massive Attack Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Free kick Well its a hotmail address. But thanks none the less, I'll have to an email out to someone out shortly. A few of the emails in the original list are of the aol/yahoo/hotmail variety. That is usually a sign of a mickey mouse organisation. Even the small firm I work for has personalized emails with the companies name. Also, anyone else notice that the CSA site is down? I wanted to email some CSA people as well. http://canadasoccer.com/eng/index.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rujulus Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Done. Mostly cut & pasted a recent post of mine: --- Dear sir, I am writing to express my disappointment in the call made by referee Archundia and his linesman in the 95th minute of the Canada - USA Gold Cup semi-final match last night, which denied Canada an equalising goal, and my concern that this is the continuation of a pattern of brutal, wrong, heavy-handed calls which have brought about economically desirable results in many past CONCACAF Gold Cup and WCQ matches. Just watched the replay about 10x. Terrible, scandalous call. Convenient for Archundia to be able to slough off responsability on his linesman. Who was that BTW? Does he have any track record of this sort of thing? It's easier for linesmen to escape scrutiny for bad calls. To those who say the red card and other calls in favour of Canada show that the fix is not in, I would say that if you want to fix a game, it is important to preserve the illusion of fairness. It is one thing to make a harsh call against the US in the dying minutes of the game when they are up 2 - 1. This call has a small chance of influencing the result. The red card may have been considered harsh, but no worse than that. That tackle was definitely a yellow and maybe a red. It is quite another to blatantly pull the rug out from under us in the 95th minute when we have scored a fantastic equaliser. This call has a 100% chance of bringing about the desired result. The ref did not even consult with the linesman to assess his level of confidence in the call. They just said, "no goal", weathered the storm, and sauntered off the pitch after a few seconds, a job well done. Once again. That wasn't hard, was it? Good for them, another USA - MEX final. But is it really what the teams, and fans, deserve? Again, you can easily make the argument in isolation that this is a bad call and no more, and that we should not be paranoid, and just be good sports and enjoy the game, but when you see this sort of brutally wrong call occurring all too often over time, you start to wonder. It is disheartening. Is there nothing we can do about this? I'm thinking about the statistical methods that were used in the recent lottery scandal in Ontario, where it was shown that lottery kiosk owners and their families were far more likely to win Scratch n' Win lotteries than others. Perhaps a similar statement could be made about refs' calls in CONCACAF matches, but I'm afraid it seems difficult to design a good and fair test to assess whether a match result is likely to have been unfairly influenced by the official(s), and also difficult to collect all the data (matches) to conduct an exhaustive test. Such an approach may be beyond our means. Very disappointing. Finally I'll just say that you don't see this sort of thing in tennis, because technology has improved officiating. At the highest levels, cameras and technology make all the right calls, so the next John MacEnroe doesn't have to throw his racquet. RFID tags in boots, the ball and RFID readers in the pitch could answer the offside problem, similarly providing a technological solution to human weakness, both physical and moral. I think it is worthwhile to investigate the possibility of corrupt match officials in CONCACAF, and I urge you to do so. We all want to see a fair game. Thank you for reading this, S. Rujulus Toronto, Canada Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Guys, let's keep those e-mails going. Keeping sending them until we over-exceed the capacity of their inboxes. Let's piss those ba$tards until they get sick of us or until CONCACAF comes-out with a statement. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Can. in UK Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Here's my email: Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to add my voice to the number of people who have expressed their concerns in regards to the officiating in last night's Cold Cup Semi-Final between USA and Canada. What took place was an embarrassment to CONCACAF football and the Gold Cup tournament. While errors in officiating are inevitable, last night's misjudgement in the final minute of the match was supremely incompetent. I sincerely hope that a formal review of the officiating process takes place to determine why a Mexican officiating crew would be involved in a game when Mexico was still involved in the tournament. I don't think anyone could deny that there is a conflict of interest in the matter. I look forward to hearing your response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxkeys Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I must respectfully disagree with BigBIrd who feels that the telecast clearly shows an offside player. While I haven't had the advantage of replaying this play to-day, I can say that I was watching it quite intensely last night. Neither in the live transmission then or in subsequent replays did I see anyone offside as the ball was kicked. Actually to me it looked to be a no-brainer - I felt I could see a measurable distance between the lead Canadian player and the defender. At any rate, I will send off the following: Dear Mr. Warner: I'm sure that the following will add to the mounting number of emails regarding the overall incompetency of the officiating during the entire Gold Cup process. Any true soccer fan would have been disgusted with the calls made in last night's US/Canada semi-final. To have these made by an official from a country also competing in a semi-final only adds to the insult. This was not a 'controversial' or judgement call: that presumes that there exists a case for doubt. The picture was quite clear on television -too bad that no-one had the guts to make the correct non-call. Recenlty you were quoted proudly stating how the level of play in CONCACAF had gone up, how there was no longer a need to add teams from other parts of the world to fill out tournament spots. And, this may in part be true. So, how about doing something to bring the officiating into the '90s? I watched again and again as officials bungled calls - and not just in games involving Canada. Many occasions a referee would issue some decision only to find himself surrounded by angry players; often these melees would last several minutes. In Europe, the matter would end quite abruptly at the issue of a further yellow card. Diving is still an art practiced by many of the teams at the Gold Cup. Surely any player in that amount of agony would be unlikely to be playing soccer again in the subsequent months, never mind minutes later. Offside calls are routinely botched although not usually to the exquisite level of last night's decision. While I doubt that you will ever issue any statement concerning the refereeing, I trust that you will at least watch the debacle again. Maybe even take a small step to rectifying this gross injustice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georg Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Just wonder, has anyone recieved a response from any official yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 quote:Originally posted by georg Just wonder, has anyone recieved a response from any official yet? No - my email was sent last night and (unsurprisingly) I haven't received a reply as yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koolkeith13 Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 You guys are really doing this the right way and to that I give you a lot of kudos. I'm really bummed out about how that game turned out for CA. I've honestly never seen ANYTHING like that before. Just absolutely nuts really. I can't even figure out what the call should've been. Anyways, you guys are doing a good thing. Keep it up! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Just want to say that a version which El Hombre so ably edited down for us, is now on the front page with a few little touch ups as well. It includes a link to this thread and a long YouTube game video embedded, good work from Jamit once again on that. I think it works as a press release and will distribute it to press by e-mail. Think it is best the website be the contact point, though they'll have my email for any questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Perhaps the only solution is for the CSA to demand that for the next World Cup Qualifying cycle, our games (or at least our home games) be officiated by referees and linesmen from outside CONCACAF, preferably from Europe. This was done in 1993 for a critical game against Mexico, when a German officiating crew was flown into Toronto. Will Colin Linford and the CSA have the balls to demand this? Perhaps under media pressure they might do it. At least this would eliminate the consistent refereeing incompetence and possible corruption that Canada has been battling for years, and allow our guys, for once, to play on a level playing field. To Jeffrey, El Hombre, and everyone else who contributed: Wow, fantastic job guys! I just got in in the last hour from an unexpectedly hectic day, and I am blown away by how quickly you guys pulled things together. Ben Knight has written an amazing article already. An announcer on Sportsnet said (and I quote) "Canada got screwed." Slowly but surely we are making progress. Now is the time to double and triple the pressure. Keep hammering away at CONCACAF's corruption, and it will fall like the statue of Lenin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachRich Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Read Ben's article & it's awesome!!!! 2 thumbs up gents!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachRich Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Read Ben's article & it's awesome!!!! 2 thumbs up gents!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Two more bouncing e-mails: jack.warner@concacaf.net chuck.blazer@concacaf.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachRich Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Would be nice in the letter that's on http://www.bcsoccerweb.com/ that it included having a CR that was from a country not involved in the Semi's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Glenn Two more bouncing e-mails: jack.warner@concacaf.net chuck.blazer@concacaf.net Since my emails to both went through last night, could it be that their inbox' are full? One can only hope. I actually liked that it was hotmail addresses and aol and such. I took that to mean that it was a primary, personal address rather than some concacaf address that they could easily ignore if they wanted to. Great work on the letter Hombre. cheers, matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesW Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Glenn Two more bouncing e-mails: jack.warner@concacaf.net chuck.blazer@concacaf.net My e-mails were "delayed", but they did not bounce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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