CONCACAF Gold Cup controversies continue to keep focus off soccer

Michael Bradley is not a big fan of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

And with reason. A loss in the tournament got his dad fired as coach of the U.S. national team four years ago. A team captained by Bradley was stunned by Jamaica in the semifinals of the tournament this year. And then Saturday, in the third-place game, he failed to convert his chance in a penalty kick shootout as the U.S. failed to medal in the tournament for the first time in 15 years.

“The Gold Cup,” Bradley said before the game, “is ridiculous.”

This time around it’s been embarrassing as well, something CONCACAF — which manages the 41 national soccer federations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean — didn’t need any more of after seeing eight officials with ties to the confederation indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on corruption charges last spring.

How else but ridiculous and embarrassing would you describe a tournament in which one team, Mexico, made it to the final scoring all three of its goals in the knockout stage on penalty kicks — two of them in overtime? Or a tournament in which one semifinal was repeatedly interrupted by fans throwing debris at players before it ended with the Panamanian team charging the referee, then posing with a crudely drawn sign accusing CONCACAF of stealing the match?

In case that was too subtle, Pedro Chaluja, president of Panama’s soccer federation, told reporters, “We feel that that game was fixed.”

Thankfully, the tournament will stagger across the finish line Sunday with a final between Mexico and Jamaica. But that won’t erase the controversy that continues to surround CONCACAF, which Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) called the “most corrupt” of FIFA’s six regional governing bodies during a congressional hearing this month.

In May, two former presidents, Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago and Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, were accused in indictments of racketeering, bribery and corruption, with some of the charges alleged against Webb involving previous Gold Cup tournaments.

With this Gold Cup, CONCACAF had hoped to get the focus back on the game. Instead, things quickly got worse.

Mexico, one of the tournament’s biggest draws, appeared in danger of elimination in a scoreless quarterfinal with Costa Rica before a highly questionable call by assistant referee Eric Boria deep in overtime resulted in a penalty kick and a 1-0 Mexico win.

Four days later, two more dubious calls by American referee Mark Geiger and two more penalty-kick goals by Andres Guardado gave Mexico another controversial overtime win over a short-handed Panama, leading to not-so-veiled suggestions CONCACAF still has a long way to go to clean up its act.

“There were third parties with interests and we know that it can’t be possible that the best-ranked referee in CONCACAF has such a poor and suspicious performance,” said Chaluja, the Panamanian federation’s chief.

Costa Rica and Panama both demanded a formal investigation into “officiating irregularities,” demands CONCACAF answered Saturday with a three-sentence statement in which it said Geiger “accepted that officiating errors had been made.”

But that didn’t little to ease the doubts that something still isn’t right with CONCACAF. And with the next round of World Cup qualifiers starting in five weeks, the confederation has precious little time to establish the credibility and confidence needed to erase those doubts.

A good start would be the leveling of serious penalties instead of mild hand slaps against fans and federations that commit acts such as those that fouled the Panama-Mexico game. For pushing an official, Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo received just a two-game ban — and frustrated teammates who charged and threatened Geiger received no punishment.

So it was no surprise Panama felt free to engage in some more unnecessary pushing and shoving in Saturday’s third-place game with the U.S.

CONCACAF also needs to take a firmer stand against unruly fans, who the confederation has tolerated for far too long. It should copy UEFA, the European confederation, which has punished objectionable fan behavior by deducting points in the qualifying table and forcing teams to play home games in empty stadiums.

Getting a handle on the questionable officiating will be more challenging. Geiger and Guatemalan Walter Lopez, who was the center referee in the Mexico-Costa Rica match, are two of the region’s best, so the fact both were publicly accused of making incorrect calls to intentionally affect the outcome of games is something CONCACAF cannot tolerate.

Yet the need for reforming the officiating was made even more obvious when Honduran referee Oscar Moncada lost control of Saturday’s chippy third-place game, which also appeared in danger of ending in a brawl.

The balance of power is shifting in CONCACAF, in which Mexico and the U.S. are no longer unchallenged as the region’s dominant teams. Costa Rica made it to the World Cup quarterfinals last summer. Jamaica made it to the Gold Cup final this summer for the first time. And Panama had made it the semifinals of the last two Gold Cups.

A changing of the guard is underway.

By cleaning up its act, CONCACAF can help that change, ushering in a new and exciting era of soccer in the region. Or it can maintain the status quo, leaving fans, players and the U.S. Justice Department to continue questioning its fairness, objectivity and honesty.