Mexico’s Cachirules scandal

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, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created. (Photo: The book produced by the Mexican football federation which led to the scandal being uncovered. Credit: Antonio Moreno)

You can listen to Mexico’s Cachirules scandal online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Mexico’s Cachirules scandal is an episode from Sporting Witness by BBC.

This episode is 10:29 long.

This episode was published on May 30, 2026.

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