World Cup stars faced ban from their own country as ‘naive’ bosses act over 2022 ’embarrassment’

The Mexican Football Federation threatened to ban its own players from the World Cup over a club-vs-country row.

Liga MX-based stars that named in the national team’s pre-tournament training camp were that if they didn’t show up, they wouldn’t be included in the squad this summer.

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Owners from clubs in Mexico initially agreed to release players after the regular season ended on April 26.

This came despite the fact Liguilla – Liga MX’s playoff tournament – kicked off on May 2 and runs through to May 24, with FIFA instructing that World Cup players must be released by May 25, unless they are finalists in continental championships.

Mexican national team head coach Javier Aguirre wanted more time with El Tri in an attempt to put the tournament co-hosts, alongside the United States and Canada, in a somewhat advantageous position for the summer.

However, officials from Toluca asked the FMF if they would grant the release of both Alexis Vallega and Jesus Gallardo so they could feature in the club’s Champions Cup semifinal second-leg against MLS side LAFC on May 6.

This angered rivals Chivas de Guadalajara who had already released five of their players ahead of their Liga MX play-off quarter final on Sunday in Raul Rangel, Luis Romo, Brian Gutierrez, Roberto Alvarado and Armando Gonzalez.

With Toluca’s request to hold back players seen as a breach of the agreement, this caused outrage and forced Aguirre to double down and say that the national team could not be ‘flexible’.

“I want [to] point out that this is not the first time that the playoffs have taken place without national team players. It has happened many times. I was a coach once when it occurred,” Aguirre said.

Despite losing the battle to keep Vallega and Gallardo, Toluca would go on to defeat LAFC 4-0, and progress to the final with an aggregate score of 5-2.

Similarly, Chivas – who entered Sunday’s second leg trailing 3-1 – clinched a dramatic 2-0 victory to book their place in the Liga MX semifinals.

Hoping to write their wrongs from 2022

According to Felipe Cardenas, senior writer for The Athletic, who made an appearance on talkSPORT’s brand new soccer show The S* Word, the threat of the ban was very much real.

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“The players have never pushed back,” Cardenas exclusively told talkSPORT. “The players want to be with the national team. They want to represent their country. This is the biggest World Cup perhaps in the history of North America, and they want to be there.

“The problem is is that it not being a FIFA window, it was almost asking everyone to just accept that the most important thing right now in Mexico is the World Cup. We’re all rowing in the same direction. This is for World Cup glory.

“Javier Aguirre telling everyone like ‘we want players in now and really early because we’re working on camaraderie. We want to get together. We want to avoid the noise. We want to push back against the norms. We’re not a status quo national team anymore.'”

This was largely in part due to their ’embarrassing’ display at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where they were eliminated in the Group Stage after finishing in third place behind eventual winners Argentina and Poland.

“Remember they were bounced out of the group stage in 2022 which was a horrendous embarrassment for the federation and for the country,” Cardenas elaborated. “And so that sounded like this plan where everyone involved understood the importance of the World Cup.

“But clearly when push comes to shove in Mexico, there are going to be moments when the plan does not go the right way. Anyone that thought this was going to be go smoothly was pretty naive considering the history of the Mexican Football Federation. …

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“I think they’re siding with their clubs. There is a club versus country aspect to this and I think you see that throughout the world. There are some fans that, they give everything to their club and the national team is really second tier.

“And in Mexico’s case, because they had such a poor World Cup in 2022, there’s a lack of confidence. There’s a lack of belief in this national team right now. That’s been part of the this four-year process to try to restore pride in the national team.”

In an attempt to restore such pride, and to try and ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself on home soil, Education Secretary Mario Delgado announced earlier in the week that the Mexican school year would end a month early.

Elevated traffic and extreme heat forecast were cited as the primary factors in the decision-making process, as parents’ and employers’ associations across the country objected to the ‘proposal’.

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