Panama's loss to Mexico on Wednesday's Gold Cup match made many people angry -- Panama's team called CONCACAF corrupt and a newspaper called the refs corrupt, while dropping the f-bomb, which I did not know you could do in Panama.
CONCACAF's president Alfredo Hawit released a statement about the awful officiating, three days after the fact:
CONCACAF president finally speaks after 3 days of silence, but only in a statement & only to blame ref Mark Geiger pic.twitter.com/1cTRd6Z9Cs
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) July 25, 2015
We met with both the Referee Department leadership and referee Mark Geiger. Mr. Geiger, one of the best regarded referees in the region with vast international experience and a proven track record, accepted that officiating errors had been made during Wednesday's match and that these impacted the outcome of the game. We at CONCACAF regret these circumstances but accept that such human errors are part of the game.
Let's just take a wild guess at what Panama's reaction would be to this statement:
Panama players looking like they want to fight the referees, the Mexican fans & players. Wild scenes at @GeorgiaDome pic.twitter.com/RkelILJ0Ae
— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) July 23, 2015