Following the 2015 Gold Cup semi-final Panama - Mexico, the Panamanian Football Federation (FEPAFUT) demands the complete and urgent removal of all members of the CONCACAF Referees Committee.
“What happened Wednesday, in the semi-final match against Mexico, proved to be the straw that broke the glass of a repetitive situation that occurred since the first game of our team during the group stage and continued during the following matches. We demand a prompt response to this request because it debunks all the effort and sacrifice made by every one of our players wearing the national shirt, the work of our coaching staff, as well as planning to management level. It was clear and everyone is witness to this, that the Panamanian team was superior to that of Mexico on the field. The opponent had no football arguments to counter the good technical and tactical nature of Panamanians so, with the clear intention to harm our team, the referee of the match unreasonably sent-off our starring front Luis Tejada and invented a totally non-existent penalty kick, just one minute from the end of the game, when it appeared that Panama would play the final against Jamaica, sending it to extra time. It is mainly for our players, coaches, their families and, finally, for our entire country that we make public our disagreement with refereeing decisions that have damaged not only our team, but others as well, as Costa Rica was also a victim of this situation. The CONCACAF refereeing left our team out of the Gold Cup final 2015, so the whole Panama deplores the poor performance of the refereeing body of the CONCACAF and hopes that the necessary measures are taken to prevent such situations to be repeated in the future. It is imperative that these changes are in place to carry out the most important football idea: Fair-Play.”
Source: FePaFut
“What happened Wednesday, in the semi-final match against Mexico, proved to be the straw that broke the glass of a repetitive situation that occurred since the first game of our team during the group stage and continued during the following matches. We demand a prompt response to this request because it debunks all the effort and sacrifice made by every one of our players wearing the national shirt, the work of our coaching staff, as well as planning to management level. It was clear and everyone is witness to this, that the Panamanian team was superior to that of Mexico on the field. The opponent had no football arguments to counter the good technical and tactical nature of Panamanians so, with the clear intention to harm our team, the referee of the match unreasonably sent-off our starring front Luis Tejada and invented a totally non-existent penalty kick, just one minute from the end of the game, when it appeared that Panama would play the final against Jamaica, sending it to extra time. It is mainly for our players, coaches, their families and, finally, for our entire country that we make public our disagreement with refereeing decisions that have damaged not only our team, but others as well, as Costa Rica was also a victim of this situation. The CONCACAF refereeing left our team out of the Gold Cup final 2015, so the whole Panama deplores the poor performance of the refereeing body of the CONCACAF and hopes that the necessary measures are taken to prevent such situations to be repeated in the future. It is imperative that these changes are in place to carry out the most important football idea: Fair-Play.”
Source: FePaFut