Players from the El Salvador national team claim there has been an attempt to fix the result of their World Cup qualifier against Canada on Tuesday.
[ MORE: Patience for Pulisic ]
El Salvador’s players have accused a businessman from Honduras of offering them bribes to secure the result for their CONCACAF fourth-round 2018 World Cup qualifying game against Canada. The match is set to take place in Vancouver, with El Salvador already eliminated from qualifying for the final round of CONCACAF qualifying.
Canada can still advance to the “Hexagonal” but they need a hefty win against El Salvador and for Honduras to lose big against already-qualified Mexico in the other Group A match.
In a press conference on Monday in Canada ahead of the game, players from the El Salvador national team played a recording of the alleged bribe.“Players from the national football team revealed this [Monday] afternoon in a news conference a recording of a Salvador businessman Ricardo Padilla offering them “prizes” to win, draw or even lose against their Canada counterparts.
“The news conference took place while in the team’s camp in Vancouver, Canada, where tomorrow [Tuesday] a game will take place against the North American opponents. According to Padilla, he is acting in representation of a Honduras millionaire that wanted to guarantee the qualification of the Catracha [Honduras] national team.”
You can watch the Facebook live stream of the announcement below.