FIFA Ruling on Matches at Altitude
Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador To Suffer
Courting controversy once again, FIFA is to inform several South American countries that they can no longer play their national team games at high altitudes.
The sports columnists and Football Federations of Ecuador and Colombia are outraged. This latest ruling by FIFA is, in their opinion, nothing more than pandering to the traditional powerhouses of South American football, Argentina and Brazil.
At the 57th FIFA Executive Committee meeting in Zurich on 30-31 May a new decree will become law and football as we know it in South America will never be the same.
FIFA are to rule, on medical grounds, that no more international football matches can take place above the altitude of 2500 meters. One can understand the desire to protect the health and wellbeing of the athletes, but with this ruling, the common feeling is, where does it all end? First altitude, then rain, heat or humidity?
In a statement released soon after FIFA’s announcement, the Vice President of the Ecuadorian Football Federation, Carlos Villacis Naranjo declared that Ecuador will maintain Quito as the only host city for their South American elimination rounds for the World Cup in South Africa 2010.
Quite bluntly put, despite belligerent arguments by various national federations, several capital cities in South America will be unable to host international matches. Bogota at 2650m, Quito at 2850m and La Paz at 3600m will seemingly only host domestic games and the occasional Copa Libertadores (the South American Champions League) game, while even the latter are very likely threatened after comments and reactions in a match between Real Potosi (Bolivia) and Flamengo (Brazil) earlier this year.
The Flamengo coaching staff and directorate declared that they would never again travel to altitude for games as some of their players required oxygen during the match versus Real Potosi. Certainly this is an extreme case as Potosi is situated at almost 4000m and just about any visiting team is going to experience problems, even those from the Bolivian lowlands of Santa Cruz.
The altitude is, of course, a home team advantage, an advantage which has not gone unnoticed by the national teams of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and to a lesser extent Peru. The Peruvian FA is considering playing their qualifying games in Cuzco (3300m) since they have failed to qualify for the world cup since 1982 and are fed up with being trampled all over in sea-level Lima. They claim it is their right to choose the venues for their home games, just as, one might say, did Canada when they needed to beat Honduras en route to Mexico 1986, in the frozen badlands of Newfoundland. That day, the Honduran players made a good showing, albeit being clad rather unconventionally in scarves, gloves and woolly hats.
There is no doubt that on the two occasions (1963 and 1997) that Bolivia has hosted the Copa America they have invariably performed their best. In 1963 they triumphed and in 1997 they were runners up to a sparkling Brazil side who beat them 3-1 with goals from Edmundo, Ronaldo and Ze Roberto in the Hernando Siles stadium in La Paz, often referred to as “the Condor’s Nest” due to its oxygen free location.
For FIFA to impose their new law and enforce it would mean that a country like Bolivia would never again get to host a tournament. In 1997 all games were played in La Paz, Sucre, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. Only Santa Cruz meets FIFA’s altitude requirements.
Sadly, it seems that FIFA will bring this law into play and we will no longer be able to enjoy the spectacle of international matches in “the Condor’s Nest” or to see Ecuador slug it out with Argentina in the Atahualpa Olympic Stadium. The South American qualifying games will needless to say become more routine, predictable without the wild card results in La Paz, Bogota or Quito. For all the complaints the Argentine Football Federation make about trips to altitude they have shown that it is not impossible to scratch out a result, beating Bolivia in La Paz 2-1 in 2005. Perhaps it just requires a different mind set and a whole different and more creative tactical approach.
