Gold Cup 2017: CONCACAF comes down on French Guiana for Malouda incident

CONCACAF drops the hammer on French Guiana over the Florent Malouda kerfuffle. Is it too little, too late for a problem that could have been avoided?

Disciplinary action came down hard on French Guiana for its stunt this past Tuesday night after the team fielded former French international Florent Malouda against Honduras in Houston.

Although French Guiana is a part of France and Malouda was born there, CONCACAF declared on the eve of the Gold Cup that it would be using FIFA’s cap-tied rule at this edition of the tournament. That meant Malouda, who played 80 times for France, would be ineligible to play in the tournament.

The move came as a shock to the team, who had placed Malouda’s name in its preliminary roster, and later on its final 23-man list of players to be used for the first round. At no time had CONCACAF said anything in the weeks before the Gold Cup was to start.

Malouda did take the field on Tuesday night versus Honduras, in defiance of the rules, in a match that ended scoreless. In its decision, CONCACAF declared Honduras an automatic 3-0 winner. At no time did the referee, CONCACAF or FIFA intervene to stop Malouda from taking the field even though the lineups had been announced hours before kick off. After the game, coach Jair Karam said he and his team knew what could happen if Malouda played, but decided it was a risk worth taking.

This creates a bigger problem that CONCACAF could have avoided. The awarding of three goals to Honduras now gives it a goal differential edge (the first tie-breaker used) as it tries to reach the knockout stage as one of the first round’s best third-place finishers.

In addition, CONCACAF decided to suspend Malouda for two games, meaningless since it’s not likely the former Chelsea star midfielder will ever play for France again at international level. Furthermore, French Guiana, playing in its first Gold Cup after finishing third at the recent Caribbean Cup, was fined an undisclosed amount.

French Guiana has not commented on the sanctions. It closes out group play Friday against Costa Rica in Frisco, Texas.