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Mexico’s men’s team is unlikely to play games in Europe in 2021, and CONCACAF commitments and friendly matches in the United States will take over the schedule, according to the president of the Mexican federation (FMF), Yon de Luisa.
Mexico has yet to play a game in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has only one friendly on September 30 against Costa Rica and one game on October 7 in Amsterdam against the Netherlands scheduled so far for the remainder of this year. .
“[Playing in Europe in 2021] it’s very complicated, it’s going to be very difficult, “De Luisa said in an interview with ESPN.” The calendar next year is going to be very tight for all the CONCACAF questions and we will seek to return to our fans. in America when they let us have fans in the stands. “
De Luisa added that the federation will work with its Soccer United Marketing (SUM) partners to organize opponents for friendly matches in the US next year to try to make up for losses in 2020.
“We will work with the SUM people, with the sponsors and TV [rights holders] for the games that we will have in 2021 and 2022, which will have a rich calendar and from which we can recover from the success of 2020. “
There have been reports that the friendly against Costa Rica at the Azteca Stadium could be in doubt, but manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino is due to return to Mexico from his native Argentina on Tuesday and is scheduled to release the squad, which will consist of exclusively Liga MX players, on Wednesday.
The trip to Europe for the game against the Netherlands, with another game, said to be against New Zealand, yet to be confirmed, has also been problematic for The Tri, with the different protocols in force in the countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The procedures regarding the players and the coaching staff entering Europe have not been easy, as they have not found opponents,” said De Luisa. “There was the possibility of having rivals from Asia and fortunately we have found other federations with problems similar to ours.”
The qualification schedule for the World Cup in CONCACAF was altered with the October and November international windows postponed due to the continued impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with the round of play at the octagonal, involving all CONCACAF nations, now scheduled to start in March 2021.
It is not clear what effect the postponement of the opening matches of the first rounds will have on the rest of the calendar. Mexico was supposed to begin the final stage of qualifying for the World Cup in the first half of the June 2021 international window, but reports suggest it could now be delayed until September 2021.
As it stands, Mexico is scheduled to play the CONCACAF Nations League “Final Four” in March, and the Gold Cup is also scheduled for July.
Source: espn.co.uk
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