Early Friday morning CONCACAF issued its ruling on the controversial participation of former France international Florent Malouda in French Guiana's 0-0 draw against Honduras in the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup,
Malouda, who was born in French Guiana and played for France from 2004-2012, was ruled by CONCACAF to be ineligible for the Gold Cup before the start of the tournament.
While Malouda sat out French Guiana's first group match on July 7, a 4-2 win for Canada, he captained the side in French Guiana's second match against Honduras on July 11, with head coach Jair Karam acknowledging he was playing Malouda even with the risk of possible sanctions.
CONCACAF ruled on Friday that the 0-0 draw against Honduras will now officially be ruled a 3-0 Honduras win by forfeit. The French Guiana federation will be fined an undisclosed amount, and Malouda has also been suspended two matches, which includes a stadium ban.
The ruling has massive implications as the final Group A matches are played later Friday. Group A leaders Canada now know they have a smaller margin for error when they face Honduras in their group finale (10 pm ET | FS1, UniMás, UDN, TSN2 in Canada).
While even a 1-0 loss to Honduras would have still put the Canadians into the quarterfinals before Friday's forfeit ruling, the same 1-0 scoreline could potentially eliminate the Canadians depending on the results of other matches this weekend.
Below are the Group A standings entering the final matchday. Overall goal difference and total goals scored are the first two tiebreakers in case teams are even on points:
Group A
Pts |
G |
W |
L |
D |
GF |
GA |
GD |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Canada |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
+2 |
2. Costa Rica |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
+1 |
3. Honduras<strong>*</strong> |
3<strong>*</strong> |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
+2 |
4. French Guiana<strong>*</strong> |
0<strong>*</strong> |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
-5 |
* NOTE: CONCACAF ruled that French Guiana forfeited its July 11 match vs. Honduras by fielding an ineligible player, Florent Malouda. Honduras were awarded a 3-0 forfeit win in the July 11 match which had ended 0-0.
