Mexico players suspended after female companions raid hotel room
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A night of passion has cost eight players their place in the Mexican squad for the Copa América.
Things seemed to be going well for the Mexican under-22 team ahead of the trip to Argentina as they put Ecuador to the sword in their final warm-up match.
The situation turned sour however when the team arrived back at their hotel to find five of the players’ rooms had been raided and $15,000 worth of items stolen.
With no signs of forced entry apparent questions were asked of the staff at the Hotel Quito. After a quick examination of the previous night’s CCTV footage the full story started to unravel.
The cameras showed members of the Mexico squad ushering women into their rooms in the early hours of Saturday morning, the day of the Ecuador fixture.
The squad’s female companions appear to have pocketed keys to the rooms and returned while the team was playing. Among the objects taken were computers, phones and stereo equipment as well as cash.
The room keys were eventually recovered from a dustbin containing a pile of used condoms.
When the facts came to light the Mexican dirty two thirds of a dozen were sent home. The offending players were also fined and banned from representing their country for six months.
The most high profile player to be expelled is Barcelona’s Jonathan dos Santos who was due to link up brother Giovanni of Tottenham Hotspur in the green of Mexico.
Another of the scolded Mexicans, Israel Jimenez of Tigres, issued an apology on his Twitter account and hoped the ordeal would “serve as experience.”
In an effort to move on from the incident Mexico have already revealed the eight players who will replace those sent home. Héctor Gonzalez Iñarritu of the Mexican FA does however feel there are issues left to address.
“The fact remains that a robbery took place and we will be encourage our lawyers to recover the stolen items.”
Iñarritu’s brother Alejandro is a film director who has worked alongside Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro in his movies Babel and 21 Grams. After this robbery and the Mexican squad’s doping scandal there will be plenty of new script ideas for the family to discuss over the dinner table.
Copa America 2011 squad previews
More teams will follow in this daily series. Plus, for more on Copa America 2011, listen to The South American Football Show.
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