THE TT Football Association (TTFA), as well as Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football), have both condemned verbal attacks on the TT men’s team during and after Saturday’s goalless draw against Mexico in the opening match of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.

It was played at the AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas.

Referee Ricardo Montero stopped play in the 86th minute, as well as the sixth minute of second-half injury time (90th plus six) because of chants from the Mexican fans about the TT team.

The TTFA, in a post on its Facebook page, wrote, “(We) strongly condemn the discriminatory actions, racist comments and threatening messages directed at our players, staff, supporters and country following (Saturday’s game).”

The local governing body for football said it was working with Concacaf to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the team.

“These actions are rooted in division, so it is paramount that we unite to stamp them out.”

Concacaf, in a Twitter post, said, “Some of the comments in response to this post (the starting line-ups for both TT and Mexico on Twitter) are disgraceful. We stand with the

TTFA in condemning them. Racism has no place in our game or in society and social media companies must do more to regulate this on their platforms.”

TT coach Angus Eve, during the post-game media conference, said, “We need to stamp these behaviours out of sport.”

He said the TT team should have been awarded full points.

In June, Mexico were ordered by the world’s governing body FIFA to play their first two home matches, in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Concacaf Qualifiers, behind closed doors – against Jamaica (September 2) and Canada (October 7). The Mexican federation were also fined US$73,000 after fans used a homophobic chant during a pre-Olympic tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico earlier this year.

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