Panama FA President Manuel Arias Faces New FIFA Investigation

Panama FA president Manuel Arias is back under FIFA investigation again, just a month after having served a six-month ban imposed on him by the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee that prohibited him from taking part in any football-related activity.

FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee has opened proceedings against him for potentially breaking the terms of that ban, saying they are the investigating “a potential breach of article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code for the alleged failure to respect the decision rendered by the adjudicatory chamber.”

Arias (pictured) is again proving to be a governance outlier in a Central American sub-region that has seen other nations work hard to clean-up their own and the region’s image, and getting increasingly behind Concacaf’s ‘football first’ mantra. With stronger focus on good governance and development of their national games the Gold Cup saw breakthrough competitive contributions from Guatemala and Honduras in particular, and the re-emergence of Costa Rica.

Panama has been part of that Central American resurgence but disappointed at the Gold Cup. Arias’ new FIFA Ethics probe now casts a shadow that stretches beyond Panama into a region that is still repairing its reputation after the multiple FIFAgate scandals and longstanding suspicions surrounding its football officials.

No detail has been given regarding specific breaches by Arias of his ban.

In January Arias was banned for six months for fat-shaming comments he made in a media interview about the country’s star women’s striker Marta Cox after Panama were knocked out of the group stage of the Concacaf W Gold Cup the previous March.

The comments Arias made shocked women’s football in the region for both their nature and the personal attack on Cox.

Responding to a media question on what was wrong with Panama’s football after her team had been knocked out of the W Gold Cup following losses to Brazil, Colombia, and Puerto Rico, Cox said the biggest problem facing players in Panama is the lack of good quality facilities to develop players.

Arias, angry that Cox expressed her opinion on the game in Panama (Cox plays for Xolos de Tijuana in Mexico), turned the debate personal, saying: “Marta Cox stopped to talk about our league. She’s out of shape, she’s fat, she couldn’t move on the pitch.”

“You have to do ‘mea culpa’ and the players were not physically well,” said Arias. “It’s very easy to talk, but she doesn’t know anything about the Panama league for years, she doesn’t know what’s going on here.”

It was an astonishing outburst from the Panama FA’s president.

Following his ban, in a statement on X, Arias apologised for the “very unfortunate language used”, that he was aware of his error and that he accepted his punishment.

He stopped short of offering his resignation saying that first vice president of the Panama FA, Fernando Arce, will take his position until returns, saying he will “do so at 100%”.

It now seems that Arias’ interpretation of what ‘100%’ means is different to FIFA’s article 21.

Insideworldfootball.com