/ 29 May 2007

South Americans angered by Fifa altitude ban

Fifa president Sepp Blatter knew that his decision not to allow international games above altitude of 2 500m would have a serious effect on South American football.

”I know that this will not be well taken in South America,” he said on Sunday, even as he announced the plan in Zurich.

By Monday, the matter had provoked presidential response across Latin America, and the football associations of Bolivia, Peru and most likely Colombia and Ecuador were taking steps to defend the status quo.

Bolivian President Evo Morales held an emergency meeting of his Cabinet, and called on presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina to lobby for valuable support at Fifa.

”This veto [of high-altitude venues] means discrimination and marginalisation in sports. With this decision, they are trying to disintegrate sports and humanity,” said Morales, who likes football a lot and plays it on a regular basis himself.

High altitude has long been a much-needed, and often effective, ally for lesser South American football teams against such powerful rivals as Brazil and Argentina.

The likes of Ronaldinho and Riquelme lose their edge in La Paz or Cusco, where oxygen is scarce, and their own coaches often choose to field alternative teams in high altitude, favouring stamina over more standard football talent.

However, doctors have long argued that it may not be quite healthy to make players unaccustomed to such extreme conditions run after a ball with only a couple of days’ prior experience. And Fifa’s medical commission has now taken this argument on board.

With immediate effect, there will be no more official international games in the Bolivian cities of Cochabamba (2 570m above sea level), Sucre (2 860m), La Paz (3 665m), Oruro (3 966m) and Potosi (4 040m).

In Peru, Cusco (3 416m) will see no more top-level football action, and neither will the Colombian capital, Bogota (2 640m), nor its Ecuadorian equivalent, Quito (2 850m).

The decision will affect, among others, matches that qualify for the World Cup, as well as the prestigious Copa Libertadores, the top regional tournament at the club level.

Peruvian officials have complained that Fifa’s decision responds to pressures from South American giants Brazil and Argentina, and are preparing to challenge its enforcement and — if it comes to the worst — to think of a second-best scenario.

”If decisions are final and there is no alternative, we will play in Arequipa,” said Juvenal Silva, president of the Peruvian National Teams’ Commission, with reference to a city that is 2 300m above sea level.

Silva himself had noted on Sunday that medical arguments against playing at high altitude had no substance, and Colombian national coach Jorge Luis Pinto agreed.

”Physiologically we can prove to the whole world with 50 years of football that nothing has ever happened, particularly now that there are very advanced medical methods,” Pinto said. ”More people have died at sea level than in high altitude.”

However, Kleber Leite, a top official with Brazilian club Flamengo, insisted on Monday that Fifa’s decision is a triumph ”not for football players, but a victory for human beings”.

In some countries, moreover, the discussion has an internal angle. In Peru, for example, most players in the national team play in teams in the coastal Lima and do not like heading uphill for national games either.

And Mexico — a regular guest at South American football competitions and whose clubs also benefit from the 2 235m of Mexico City — got away unscathed. — Sapa-dpa