On Tuesday, Chivas de Guadalajara continued training in Cancun as they focused on the 2018 Liga MX Clausura. But they were a little shorthanded on defense due to center-back Oswaldo Alanis being demoted from the first team to the second team.
The reasoning behind the decision was a contract dispute. Chivas didn’t want to give Alanis the multiple year contract extension he desired. Although when questioned about it, Jose Luis Higuera, whom is CEO of Omnilife who in turn own Chivas, stated that they gave him a slew of options on teams he could go to on loan but would have to sign a longer term contract to ensure them.
Being demoted to the second team after contract negotiations failing seems a bit fishy and unfair. Groups as Asociation Mexicana de Futbolistas or AMF have called this type of behavior out for being against FIFA regulations. They took to twitter to support their views posting this picture.
In Liga MX there is a thing called “Pacto De Caballeros”, which in short is a gentlemen’s pact from team to team to help maintain economic wealth with control. The teams who own the players treat them as assets, and even if it’s a six month window, the team is involved with what teams the player speaks to and ultimately decides the players fate. If the player doesn’t adhere to these standards, he may be blackballed from the Liga MX as a whole and be outcasted.
That’s a lot of control a team has over a player. Alanis has six months left on his contract. In any other league, as the Premier League or La Liga, the player would have the final say on what teams he can talk to and eventually sign for. In Liga MX, you have Alanis demoted to the second team and unable to make any public statements to media for fear of being blackballed.
This isn’t the first time this has happened, we are all far too familiar with case of Alan Pulido. When he tried to move to the Greek Super League from Tigres. Pulido had to go to The Court of Arbitration for Sports where the court ruled in favor of Tigres for contract breach on the part of Pulido. It it ultimately slowed down his move and made his European career start off on the wrong foot. Tigres had also done this in the past with Kikin Fonseca.
Players for El Tri, mostly European based ones like Diego Reyes, Raul Jimenez, Marco Fabian, Carlos Salcedo, and Memo Ochoa, showed out in support on Twitter for the footballer who they feel is being treated unfairly putting #PorElBienFutbolmexicano which translates to “for the good of Mexican soccer”. Rafa Marquez and Javier Aquino retweeted the original from AMF, which is surprising since they still play in Liga MX and may face backlash. If Marquez has shown anything though it’s that he’s willing to be the voice of the players when everyone is too scared to speak out.
#PorElBienDelFutbolMexicano #FutbolistasUnidos @os_alanis https://t.co/cGtyOZoL3O
— Rafa Marquez (@RafaMarquezMX) December 19, 2017
Is Oswaldo being treated unfairly? Also is the Pacto de Caballeros holding back Liga MX from becoming a better league?