PERU PERUSAL
News that Peru fans have been protesting in the streets against the doping ban imposed on the country’s captain, Paolo Guerrero, has got the Fiver looking forward to some thrilling attacking football from the South American side and wondering again about a vengeful marsupial. We may be extrapolating too much from the precedent set by Peru’s 1970 campaign but you knew the risks when you signed up for this guff. And the fact is that 1970 was Peru’s most successful World Cup and it, too, was preceded by popular rage against a perceived injustice – and followed by a curious incident of an opossum and denied time.
In the qualifiers for the 1970 tournament Peru lost 2-1 to Bolivia in circumstances that led to the referee becoming a marked man down Lima way. The Venezuelan whistler disallowed one Peruvian goal, sent off two Peruvian players and detonated the golden age of Peruvian swearing, with new terms invented at a rate of 73 per minute just to pour scorn on the official. Even though Peru overcame that defeat and went on to play dazzling attacking football all the way to the quarter-finals, some folks remained embittered enough to smile when they read three years later about a Venezuelan cup match between Aragua and Portugesa that ended in mayhem as the same referee was accused of blowing for full-time five minutes early, leading to furious Aragua players hitting him with fists and feet and, in the case of goalkeeper Dario Castillo, reportedly with a black-eared opossum that happened to be passing.
Now, the Fiver is not suggesting English referees should be thankful they aren’t good enough to have been selected for this summer’s Ethics World Cup or that there is any chance of marsupials being deployed as weapons in Russia. We’re just noting that there are good and bad ways of channelling anger and Peru seemed to get it right in 1970. Aragua, not so much.
All of which brings us back to Guerrero, who is likely to miss the Ethics World Cup after the court of arbitration for sport ruled on Monday that his ban for testing positive for the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine should be extended from six to 14 months. Cas accepted the player did not seek to gain an advantage but maintained he should have been more careful, disappointing the player who had explained: “I had an anise tea in Peru because I had indigestion, and I had black tea with lemon and honey in Argentina because I had the flu. I don’t blame anyone, but the substance could have been in a jar or a cup.” Indeed, the player’s lawyers suggested there’s no way of knowing for sure when the substance invaded their client’s system, noting that remnants linger for ages if traces found in three perfectly preserved 16th century Inca mummies discovered in 1999 are anything to go by. That cut no ice with Cas, apparently.
Peruvians have mobilised to persuade Fifa otherwise, as have the captains of France, Denmark and Australia. “We believe that in the interest of fairness and proportionality (…) Paolo who — as everyone agrees did not cheat — should be able to participate with, and against, his fellow professionals in the [Ethics] World Cup,” wrote Hugo Lloris, Simon Kjaer and Caltex Caltex Mile Jedinakeroo in a letter to Fifa.
Guerrero even met this week with Fifa overlord Gianni Infatino – to little effect. “The Fifa president stressed the fact that the sanction had been imposed by the court of arbitration for sport, after an appeal lodged against a decision of an independent Fifa judicial body,” a Fifa wonk wibbled.
In happier news, Fifa also announced this week that all of Russia’s players are clear to play at the tournament after an investigation into anti-doping violations found “insufficient evidence” of any cheating by anyone in the hosts’ squad.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We have consulted with different experts and we decided to take actions that, to our understanding, will not prejudice Márquez” – The Mexican Soccer Federation explain that defender Rafael Márquez will train in a strip featuring no sponsors in case a training kit emblazoned with logos somehow affects a US Treasury Department investigation into him for alleged drugs trafficking. He denies the accusation.
SUPPORT THE GUARDIAN
Producing the Guardian’s thoughtful, in-depth journalism – the stuff not normally found in these emails, obviously – is expensive, but supporting us isn’t. If you value our journalism, please support us by making a one-off or recurring contribution.
FIVEЯ LETTERS
“For no reason in particular, here’s the England team at the 1986 World Cup in Panini form (stickers not bread) and also the stickers for them at their clubs. Interestingly, Chelsea appeared to have no sponsor, Ipswich Town were sponsored by the darkly named Radio Orwell and Spurs seemed intent on warning us there was a left turn coming up soon” – Noble Francis.
• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com with “The FiveЯ” in the subject line. Or just “World Cup Fiver” if that’s easier. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet The Fiver.
THE RECAP
Get the best of Big Website’s coverage sent direct to your inbox every Friday lunchtime BST. Has the added bonus of being on time. Sign up here.
BITS AND BOBS
Michel Platini has raised his standing on the international stage by suggesting a “little trickery” was used to increase the chances of France meeting Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final.
Radja Nainggolan has dispatched each and every toy from his pram in a perfect parabola after not being included in Belgium’s squad by immediately retiring from internationals. “The reason is tactical,” sniffed Bobby Martínez, whose tactics, however, do include Christian Benteke.
Adrien Rabiot has told Didier Deschamps he must be off his bascule if he thinks he’ll sit on France’s standby list rather than in the main squad, and has sent the manager a snotty email to that effect. “He made a bad decision,” bof, zut-alorsed a French FA suit.
England will train their squad in how to be racially abused over fears they could be targeted in Russia. Meanwhile, new England captain Harry Kane says anything other than winning the Ethics World Cup “is not good enough” so let’s see how that one unfolds.
Argentina’s Sergio Romero will miss the Ethics World Cup due to knee knack, while Mauro Icardi will miss it with selection-gah after he was left off Jorge Sampaoli’s 23-man list.
Will Smith is supposed to be recording the official Ethics World Cup anthem with reggaeton star Nicky Jam, and Kosovan dancehall EDM singer Era Istrefi.
STILL WANT MORE?
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is not intimidated by anyone, not even Panama.
Remember when Brazil were thwacked 7-1? That was good.
Being a captain is pretty redundant nowadays, so just score some goals Harry, writes Paul Wilson.
Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO!
.png?w=600)
