SOCCER : Allegation of Bribery Spurs Official Inquiry
Chuck Blazer, general secretary of the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean soccer federations (CONCACAF), said Thursday he has scheduled a hearing for a Honduran goalkeeper, who, according to published reports, accused a Santa Ana promoter of attempting to bribe him.
“If this is an issue, the proper place for it to be raised is not in the press but in my office,” Blazer said during an Inglewood news conference in announcing that he has invited goalkeeper Belmarino Rivera, his legal counsel and a Honduran soccer official to appear at CONCACAF headquarters next Wednesday in New York.
Notimex, a Mexican news service, reported this week that Rivera had told his coach that Hugo Bandi, president of Sudmex Promotions, Inc., in Santa Anta, approached him before last Sunday’s final game in the Central American Nations Cup at San Jose, Costa Rica, and offered him $10,000 to allow El Salvador to beat Honduras.
Honduras won, 2-1, earning a berth in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, scheduled for June 28-July 7 at the Coliseum and Rose Bowl. According to a Salvadoran reporter who attended Thursday’s news conference, there were rumors in San Jose that Gold Cup organizers would attempt to arrange for El Salvador to advance in hopes that the large Salvadoran population in Southern California would buy tickets to the team’s games.
Bandi, who is working for the Gold Cup organizers in a management capacity, said Thursday that he had spoken with Rivera for 10 minutes in a hotel coffee shop before Sunday’s game but denied that he had tried to bribe the player.
“He’s 34, and he said he’s going to retire next year, and he wants to come to Los Angeles, where he has two brothers,” Bandi said. “They want to reside here, he and his family of four kids. He thought I could give him a hand. I gave him my telephone number and my fax number and all the information he needed. The topic of the game came up, but that discussion was very light.
“I really don’t know the reason behind this (allegation). It could be a mistake. It could be that the possibility of my helping to place him when he comes (to Los Angeles) was misunderstood.
“I’ve been in this business for about 20 years. If that idea (bribing a player) crossed my mind, I’d never go to a hotel coffee shop and give him my card. That would be like shooting your own foot.”
Rivera was not available for comment Thursday. Telephone calls to the Honduran soccer federation in Tegucigalpa were not answered.
Blazer said he has had no communication with Honduran officials since Sunday’s game and that his inquiry is based entirely on news reports. He acknowledged that rumors of attempts to fix soccer games throughout the world are not uncommon.
“I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened in other times, places and situations,” he said. “I just hope it didn’t happen here.”
Addressing another controversy, Blazer said he was convinced that El Salvador had sent its best players available to the Central American Nations Cup. The problem, he said, was that many of the country’s best players were not available because they were engaged in El Salvador’s professional league playoffs.
Soccer Notes
Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Honduras and Guatemala won remaining berths in the eight-team CONCACAF Gold Cup during qualifying tournaments last week.
