Cachirules

Mexico and other national youth teams of the CONCACAF region were required to finish in first or second place in the 1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament hosted in Guatemala during April 1988 in order to qualify for the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in the same year, FIFA issued a statement warning all national associations not to attempt to deceive the footballing authorities regarding the age of players participating in youth tournaments (in response to what was common practice by youth teams across the world of including players of ages over the regulatory limit). The maximum age established by FIFA for the participation of footballers in the Youth World Championship was 20 years.

Mexico played their first two matches against Guyana, winning by scores of 9–0 and 2–0, and then against the host team, again winning both matches, 2–1 and 3–0. This last victory occurred on 20 April 1988, with forward Gerardo Jiménez scoring a goal, securing first place in their group and qualification to the World Youth Championship.

Journalist Antonio Moreno from the Mexican public TV network Imevisión (now TV Azteca) and author of a football-dedicated column for Mexican newspaper Ovaciones, discovered in an April 1988 yearbook (1986–87 edition) published by FEMEXFUT itself, a discrepancy between the players' ages shown in the publication and the ones submitted by the federation to CONCACAF for the qualification tournament in Guatemala.[1] On 20 April 1988 Moreno published an article emphasizing the risks of "trying to create an advantage over the opponents by including players over the permitted age". In response, the then FEMEXFUT president Rafael del Castillo played down the matter and verbally attacked the reporter.[3]

Antonio Moreno, however, was backed up by fellow Imevisión journalist José Ramón Fernández, from the show La Misma Hora, who broadcast the news on television. The initial reaction of the FEMEXFUT was to deny and ignore the accusations, but once the public realized the magnitude of the scandal, many Mexican journalists began to interview the players and to insistently look for the team members' birth certificates; eventually, the real birth dates of players Gerardo Jiménez and José de la Fuente, both two years older than the established limit by the FEMEXFUT, were found. Forward José Luis Mata was also over the age limit, by three years, and defender Aurelio Rivera was four years over.[3] Rivera, team captain at the time, has declared in later interviews that every member of the squad was over age, although such affirmation has not been verified.[4]

The information was widely spread on televised and written media in Mexico and inevitably reached the United States Soccer Federation, who submitted an official complaint to CONCACAF, demanding the case be investigated, after its youth team failed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.[5] The Guatemalan Football Federation joined the protest.[5] The discovery was conducted by Salvadorean José Ramón Flores, who promptly verified the falsity of the ages submitted by the FEMEXFUT for the tournament's squad members.[6]

On 19 June 1988, CONCACAF determined that the ages of the four players (Jiménez, de la Fuente, Mata, and Rivera) were in fact false, and Mexico was disqualified from participation in the Saudi Arabia Youth World Championship.

Further, several officials were banned for life (but not the team coach Francisco Avilán), among them José de Jesús Alvarez Guzmán, Rafael Castellanos, Rafael del Castillo, Víctor Manuel González, Ramón Martínez, Manuel Acevez Montenegro, Gerardo Gallegos, Gilberto Morfín Salazar, and Héctor Antonio Pérez.[6][7] With the disqualification of Mexico, the United States replaced Mexico in qualifying for the World Youth Championship and, along with Costa Rica, were the two CONCACAF representatives.

Rafael del Castillo traveled to Zurich on 22 June 1988 and attempted to appeal before FIFA, hoping to overturn his life ban issued by CONCACAF; no regard was given to the situation of Mexico's football suspension.[2][8] The Mexico executives arrived at the FIFA headquarters confident of the influence that Guillermo Cañedo might have within world football's governing body, but they did not achieve the expected results.

On 30 June 1988, FIFA not only upheld CONCACAF's decision to eject the Mexican U-20 team from the World Youth Championship, but also barred all Mexican national teams, including the senior team, from all FIFA-sanctioned international competition for two years, retrospective to 25 April. This penalty not only disqualified Mexico from the 1988 Olympic tournament in Seoul, but also meant they were banned from entering the qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.[9] Guatemala replaced Mexico at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and along with the United States were the two CONCACAF representatives.

Previous violators of age limits had only received bans from underage competitions. FIFA believed these past sanctions had had little effect, and said the harsher punishment was intended "to serve as a strong warning".[10][11]

After the disqualification, Mexico has never been able to surpass the round of 16 since their return to the tournament in 1994, thus making the 1986 the last time the national football team ever reached the quarter-finals. Some believe that the 4th match is cursed by scandal. During the beginning the decade of the 2020s Mexico began suffering a crisis and poor results including losing to the United States 3 times at the 2021 CONCACAF Nations League Final, the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup final and the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification and losing Canada 2–1 in a huge upset. Not only the senior team has been effecting from this situation but also the women’s team both senior and youth were also suffering poor results including being eliminated at the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship Group stage losing to Jamaica, Haiti, and the United States. At the same tournament Mexico would also eventually failed to qualify for both the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and 2024 Summer Olympics respectively. And for the Mexico Women’s youth teams would eventually end up as runners up both 2022 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship and the 2022 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship and also being eliminated at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup group stage while the Women’s U-20 eliminated at 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Quarterfinals against Spain. For the men’s team they would also suffer poor results including youth teams. Mexico U-20 were eliminated at the 2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship to Guatemala and also failing to qualify the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Finally for the men’s senior team whom was also suffering the Round of 16 Curse since 1994 suffer poor results from 2021 onward with losing 2 finals in 2021. In 2022 Mexico's club team UNAM also lost a US club team Seattle Sounders FC at the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League final and Team Liga MX All-Stars suffer another lost for Mexico this time to the U.S soccer league MLS All-Stars at the 2022 MLS All-Star Game. Finally in late 2022 the Mexico national team arrived at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Mexico opens up with a draw to Poland. In their second match against Argentina Mexico lost to them 2-0 which Mexico began to struggle an elimination. Finally in their final World Cup group stage Mexico won against Saudi Arabia 2-1 but however most goals that Mexico scored were offside and ended Mexico's Round of 16 streak of 8 and Mexico was officially being eliminated from the group stage due to goal differences. This was the first time since 1978 that Mexico failed to advance for the Round of 16 in their history with the 2022 elimination was also part of the cachirules scandal and the first in the 21st Century and the new millennium with leaving many fans heartbroken. After 2022 Gerardo Martino the coach who started this in mid-2021 left out as their coach for Mexico for good. Some fans says the curse of the Cachirules scandal and the Round of 16 May have ended while some fans say that the curse still exists to this present day.

A possible origin of the word refers to the slang word cachirul or cachirulo, term used in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century to designate a patch or repair of bad quality on clothing. Alternatively, the term cachirul or cachirulo was employed for all things of questionable quality, origin, or reputation. Football used the adjective in the yards of lower amateur categories in cities and towns of Mexico, referring to players whom without being part of the team roster, would take the field in order to complete the team and thus avoid losing the game due to lack of players. This implicated deceiving the referee, as players used other player's identity, creating a "cachirul". As time passed, and especially after the 1988 scandal, the term cachirul in Mexico has become almost exclusively a footballing term.

Another possible origin of the word refers to a TV character of the 1950s and 1960s called Cachirulo, created by Enrique Alonso for the younger audiences in the first years of television in Mexico. Nicknaming the name "cachirules" alluded to the fact that in the same way that Alonso, who played Cachirulo, being younger than the actor portraying him, the footballers implied in the scandal were feigning to be younger than they actually were.

• Age fraud in association football