Even in the continually-crazy world of CONCACAF, this is a new one. It’s not often that any team in any sport purposely forfeits a game to intentionally field an ineligible player.
A little background: Former Chelsea and France national team star Florent Malouda was a surprise inclusion on French Guiana’s roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, because, well, he’s a former France national team star.
Thanks to a litany of regulations put forth by CONCACAF (if not FIFA), Malouda was determined to be ineligible to play for French Guiana in the Gold Cup, precisely because of his former career with France. More information about that can be found in Brain Straus’ story about Malouda’s inclusion and eligibility, which includes this soon-to-be-relevant snippet:
Malouda’s ineligibility was confirmed to SI.com by a CONCACAF spokesperson late Thursday.
“The rules say he’s ineligible,” the spokesperson said. “We are using FIFA rules, and so a player who has played in an official match for a different [national team] cannot play in Gold Cup. More precisely, he is not eligible to play. He can play, but he’s not eligible.”
And this is where this gets weird. As the spokesperson said, Malouda can play. CONCACAF can’t physically stop him from taking the field. It can only rule the game a forfeit if he does.
On Tuesday against Honduras, French Guiana decided to put that to the test.
Official lineup #FrenchGuiana #GoldCup2017 #GUF @DrinkBODYARMOR pic.twitter.com/s1R81Mxvzr
— CONCACAF (@CONCACAF) July 12, 2017
Yep, that’s Malouda, starting at left midfield. French Guiana had intentionally forfeited the game, simply to have the former Champions League and EPL winner on the field during the game. A game, which went on as normal and ended in a 0–0 draw.
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