It´s just not FIFAir!
Trouble´s a-brewing in the Andean nations of South America after FIFA, the world governing body for football/soccer announced last Saturday that they were going to ban international games taking place above 2,500 meters. This news did not go down very well in the Andean nations of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, which often play their international home games above 2,500 meters, giving them a large home field advantage.
Bolivia is the nation most affected, as many of their cities are above the limit, especially the capital La Paz, located at 3,600 meters. The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has been holding crisis meetings with his cabinet and sports ministers to figure out appropriate action. He has also been playing in showcase games at higher and higher altitudes to show that there´s no problem with playing at altitude. He plans to play in a game above 6,000 meters to prove his point.
The Andean nations believe it was mostly Brazil and maybe Argentina that led the call for this rule change. Despite having some of the best players in the world, the Brazilians especially seem to suffer when they pay visits to La Paz, Cusco or Quito in Ecuador.
The main countries to suffer from this ruling are Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico. Colombia´s response was "if you don´t want to come to high Bogotá to play, then we´ll take you to the hot, steamy jungle to play international matches".
The Andean nations have a fair point when rebutting FIFA´s stated reasons of health grounds and ask how it is healthy to play in hot, steamy conditions like in Sao Paolo or like at World Cup 2006 in Germany.
It looks like this issue is not going to resolve itself anytime soon and it also looks like FIFA might already be backtracking somewhat. To be continued...
Bolivia is the nation most affected, as many of their cities are above the limit, especially the capital La Paz, located at 3,600 meters. The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has been holding crisis meetings with his cabinet and sports ministers to figure out appropriate action. He has also been playing in showcase games at higher and higher altitudes to show that there´s no problem with playing at altitude. He plans to play in a game above 6,000 meters to prove his point.
The Andean nations believe it was mostly Brazil and maybe Argentina that led the call for this rule change. Despite having some of the best players in the world, the Brazilians especially seem to suffer when they pay visits to La Paz, Cusco or Quito in Ecuador.
The main countries to suffer from this ruling are Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico. Colombia´s response was "if you don´t want to come to high Bogotá to play, then we´ll take you to the hot, steamy jungle to play international matches".
The Andean nations have a fair point when rebutting FIFA´s stated reasons of health grounds and ask how it is healthy to play in hot, steamy conditions like in Sao Paolo or like at World Cup 2006 in Germany.
It looks like this issue is not going to resolve itself anytime soon and it also looks like FIFA might already be backtracking somewhat. To be continued...
posted by Kevin at 6/04/2007 12:49:00 AM
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