In addition to Celaya, criminal groups have spread their influence to amateur soccer in Irapuato and Salamanca, seeking to control the leagues by sponsoring teams with amounts exceeding 100,000 pesos for a single match.
For example, the municipality of Salamanca has five Level 11 leagues, with an average of 60 teams each, with 15 players, as revealed to MILENIO by a member of these leagues who requested anonymity.
This comes in light of recent violent incidents at sporting venues and documented threats in other municipalities of Guanajuato.
The member explained that these “sponsorships” involve investments exceeding 100,000 pesos in a single Sunday match. This amount covers the payment of 1,000 pesos for each of the 15 players on both teams, as well as referee fees, food, beer, and soccer balls.
In addition, there’s the hiring of “talacheros,” former professional players who receive between 15,000 and 20,000 pesos for a single match.
“These are front companies, people looking for a way to have representation within a league. They start subtly insinuating themselves, buying everyone beers, recruiting the players, investing in them, and that’s the hook to get where they want to be, where there’s free beer, where people come on their own,” he asserted.
Milenio reported that cartels are trying to control local soccer leagues by any means necessary, shooting spectators and killing or kidnapping players. In 2018, a referee and a player were killed on the field in the municipality of Celaya; last year, 13 players were murdered.
The league member explained to MILENIO that criminal groups give away beer at the beginning to ensure a large crowd, and once the crowd is established, they monopolize alcohol sales and introduce the sale of illicit substances.
“Where there are soccer players, there are a lot of fans and a lot of beer, so they start the business from within. Since it’s a group of people who are starting to like soccer, I invest in the players so that instead of having 10 people in the fan section, I have 100, and then, instead of having 100, I have 200, and I sell the beer and I sell the drugs,” he explained.
When asked which criminal group is leading this activity, he replied:
“It’s the local group and one from the neighboring state as well.”
Because of this conflict, he indicated that these games are risky, since you don’t know when the opposing group will arrive to attack the other group’s field.
“It’s like saying, ‘I’m your competition and I want to hurt you.’ They’re stirring things up because you’re working comfortably, you’ve already won over all those fans, so they’re going to stir things up on your turf. The authorities are already there, and they’re not going to let you work anymore,” he commented.
In Irapuato, the situation is similar. A manager of a soccer field that’s part of a local league stated that there’s a worrying security problem, noting that armed groups have already invaded the field mid-game to kidnap fans or players.
“At a Uruguayan-style field here in Irapuato, they arrived with guns and pistols and took someone a year ago. It hasn’t happened to us yet, and we don’t want it to,” he emphasized.
He commented that in the 11-a-side leagues, because a lot of money is involved in sponsorships and betting, criminal pressure directly affects the sporting results through explicit death threats before the soccer finals.
“I’ve had teams come to me saying, ‘I’m coming here because last week we played in the finals and some guys were threatening us with guns, saying if we won, things would go this way for us, so we threw the game.’ Sometimes it’s rivals or people from outside the league,” he explained.
He argued that the league is no longer judged solely on the level of play, but now also by the people involved.
“In top-flight soccer, you see a guy getting paid 5,000 or 7,000 pesos to play, and then you see a team of 15 players, each earning 5,000 or 3,000 pesos, and wow! It’s a whole different ballgame. There’s more money involved in 11-a-side soccer, but the atmosphere is very intense. They know players from Monterrey, León, Silao, and Salamanca are coming here,” he emphasized.
Source: milenio
