The expulsion of the Nicaraguan soccer team from the CONCACAF Gold Cup has raised a storm of accusations that point to the corruption of the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, represented in that sport by their political operator Fidel Moreno, has dotted the national football, after which the International Federation of Associated Football (FIFA) could investigate and sanction the Nicaraguan Federation.
The Confederation of North American, Central American and Caribbean Soccer (Concacaf) sanctioned the Nicaraguan men’s national soccer team by excluding it from the Gold Cup for having fielded Uruguayan Richard Rodríguez in 8 international matches, without his having met all the requirements of nationality, but that may not be the only measure that Nicaraguan soccer would have to face, because in the opinion of sportswriter Loanny Picado, FIFA could also apply sanctions “with catastrophic consequences” to pinolero football.
And it is that the expulsion of Nicaragua from the Gold Cup is just “the tip of the iceberg” of all the corruption that occurs in Nicaraguan soccer, according to Picado, who has specialized in coverage of that sport.
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Although the Nicaraguan Football Federation (Fenifut) has promised to appeal to try to reverse the Concacaf sanction, Picado believes that it will be difficult for the continental sports body to retract since it is not a measure taken lightly but rather an investigation that it has taken time.
Especially since the Uruguayan player himself acknowledged, in an interview with the sports news network ESPN, that it was Fidel Moreno himself who brought him to Nicaragua to play for Real Estelí, under the promise of granting him Nicaraguan nationality and allowing him to play in the Blue and White National Team.
“They contacted me to adopt nationality in 2017, they made me the offer to go to Real Estelí and also play for the national team and I said yes,” Rodríguez told ESPN.
Picado explains that Fidel Moreno, one of the main political operators of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, sanctioned by the US, Canada and the European Union for supporting the repression against the people of Nicaragua, is the owner of the Real Estelí team and “has all the power to nationalize whoever they want due to influence with the dictatorial couple in Nicaragua” and it was to that team that they brought the Uruguayan.
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The sports writer insists that Moreno’s mission is actually to control Nicaraguan sports for political purposes, which she called “shame”, because “because of the (political) interference and control that there is in Fenifut by these close people to the dictatorship, this is happening. It is time for FIFA to act and carry out an in-depth investigation into the Fenifut and all this sewer that exists internally,” said the sports journalist.
Fidel Moreno is accused of being one of the most important links in the government corruption scheme, linked to Ortega and Murillo, and according to Picado, he is the one who “began to give nationalities to players to play for his team (Real Estelí) through above the law, all to control football.
“The only people responsible for the fact that Nicaragua is out of the Gold Cup today, is for the group that has kidnapped soccer, headed by Fidel Moreno, who has those of Fenifut as puppets and gave away nationalities above the law and statutes, without measuring consequences, “he insists.
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Picado pointed out that Fenifut has no arguments to appeal the Concacaf sanction, since in the Statutes of that organization, chapter number 7, article 17, the requirements are established for a foreigner to be admitted to a selection: “that the player has born in the country in question, if one of the parents is from the country of the national team, or have completed at least five years in the country where you want to play and none of these players who play for Real Estelí meet the requirements,” he concluded. the expert in sports journalism.
