Mexico’s Cachirules scandal

Mexico’s Cachirules scandal

From Sporting Witness by BBC World Service

May 30, 2026 · 10 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the Cachirules scandal in Mexican football that led to the men's team being banned from the 1990 World Cup.

In 1988, a scandal took place in Mexican football, which saw the men’s team banned from the 1990 World Cup. Mexico had fielded over-age players for the under-20s CONCACAF tournament, which was discovered by sports journalist Antonio Moreno. When he published his findings, it led to the banning of all international teams from tournaments for two years. It gave birth to a theory that Mexico have become cursed at the World Cup, failing to progress past the last-16 ever since. Antonio has been speaking to Tim O’Callaghan about uncovering the scandal and the impact it had. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded. Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend…

People in this episode

Host: Tim O’Callaghan

Guest: Antonio Moreno

Topics covered

  • football scandal
  • World Cup history
  • over-age players
  • sports journalism
  • Mexican football

Keywords

  • Cachirules
  • Mexico
  • football
  • World Cup
  • Antonio Moreno
  • scandal
  • over-age players
  • sports history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mexico

More episodes of Sporting Witness

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Sporting Witness podcast page.