September 15 – Bolivian football, already rocked by their federation chief being arrested, has been further hit by a players’ strike.
Last week it was announced that CONMEBOL and FIFA are to jointly audit the finances of the Bolivian Football Federation after Carlos Chavez, Conmebol’s treasurer, was jailed in July on charges he diverted funds from a charity match. The charges were linked to an alleged scam involving a fund set up for the family of a fan who died at an international match. Prosecutors claim the family never received any of the money raised by the fund.
Now the country has even more problems. Bolivia are due to begin their World Cup qualifying campaign in less than a month but the players’ union Fabol said its members were protesting over unpaid wages at two first division clubs, Wilstermann and San Jose and that the domestic championship would also be halted.
“Apart from stopping the tournament, our players will not report to the national team when they are called up, that is our reality,” said Fabol’s legal advisor David Paniagua.
“I hope we don’t get to this extreme, but it’s the responsibility of the directors. We don’t want to keep extending the deadline. We have exhausted all the channels and there’s a limit for everything.”
Bolivia, who last qualified for the World Cup in 1994, are due to kickoff their 2018 qualifying campaign at home to Uruguay on October 8 before visiting Ecuador five days later.
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