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With the Copa America and the Gold Cup coming up this summer, Miguel “El Piojo” Herrera managed to take some time away from his commitments with the national team to voice his thoughts on Mexico’s upcoming elections.
The Mexican Soccer Federation is investigating whether or not Herrera violated any policies involved with the national team.
Herrera had this to say about the country's elections:
Los verdes si cumplen
— Miguel Herrera (@MiguelHerreraDT) June 7, 2015Apoyemos a la selección. No dejen de votar, vamos con los verdes
— Miguel Herrera (@MiguelHerreraDT) June 7, 2015This translates to: “Support the chosen, don’t forget to vote, let's go with the Greens”
“The Greens follow through with what they say.” In his tweet, Herrera was referring to one of Mexico’s smaller political parties, the Ecological Green Party, that surprised many with a few successful campaign results in the 2015 Mexican Legislative elections.
Shortly after his initial tweets drew attention from people for being politically charged, he tweeted, “This is my personal decision, you all vote and act by your own preference, but don’t do without voting, with your vote, Mexico wins!” He ended the tweet with a thumbs up. It was good of him to clear things up on twitter but the damage was done.
The Mexican Soccer Federation is contemplating fines for Herrera due to his tweets. The Federation’s Ethics Committee is reviewing the situation to see if he violated their policy on neutrality. Players and coaches must remain neutral on issues relating to politics.
Even though he didn’t specifically mention the Mexican national team or was specifically trying to convince fans of El Tri to vote a certain way, he might have drawn criticism for his choice of language. “La Seleccion” is often used in reference to the Mexican national team. For example, “La Seleccion Mexicana.” Also, he reffered to “Verde." Green is the color of Mexico’s famous jerseys.
What was even more concerning was that it was tweeted the day of the election. The Mexican Soccer Federation seems to believe that Herrera might have been encouraged by Los Verdes to promote supporting them. An act that is illegal in Mexico, due to campaign laws, you cannot campaign the day of the election.
When questioned about his political involvement, Herrera said, "I'm a human being, I'm a normal Mexican citizen, with statements that I can make in social media."
"It's simply a personal situation."
I agree with him. He should be able to say what he wants, he wasn’t actively trying to recruit El Tri fans to support a specific party, he was just voicing his mind to his followers. If he would have mentioned El Tri specifically, then it would be a whole other story, but he didn’t. The Mexican Soccer Federation should let the issue slide, especially with the Copa America coming up. The last thing you want along the way is controversy distracting the manager from his duties.
Two players from the El Tri squad could also be in hot water over using their political voice. Oribe Peralta and Marco Fabian both were involved in tweets, showing support for Mexico’s Green Party while encouraging followers to vote for them.
In any case. With Cuauhtemoc Blanco having been elected mayor, would you be surprised if we saw Miguel Herrera run for office in the future? Imagine that.
