French Guiana at the CONCACAF Gold Cup

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is North America's major tournament in senior men's football and determines the continental champion. Until 1989, the tournament was known as CONCACAF Championship. It is currently held every two years. From 1996 to 2005, nations from other confederations have regularly joined the tournament as invitees. In earlier editions, the continental championship was held in different countries, but since the inception of the Gold Cup in 1991, the United States are constant hosts or co-hosts.

Striker Roy Contout scored French Guiana's first goal at a continental championship and played in all three matches.

From 1973 to 1989, the tournament doubled as the confederation's World Cup qualification. CONCACAF's representative team at the FIFA Confederations Cup was decided by a play-off between the winners of the last two tournament editions in 2015 via the CONCACAF Cup, but was then discontinued along with the Confederations Cup.

Since the inaugural tournament in 1963, the Gold Cup was held 27 times and has been won by seven different nations, most often by Mexico (12 titles).

French Guiana started participating in the qualification tournaments with the instatement of the Gold Cup format in 1990. Since then, they have qualified once, in 2017. They were eliminated in the group stage after three defeats.

Being a CONCACAF, but not a FIFA member, French Guiana would not be eligible to represent CONCACAF at a FIFA Confederations Cup even if they were to win the tournament.

Overall record
CONCACAF Championship
Year Result Position Pld W D L GF GA
CONCACAF Gold Cup
United States 1991Did not qualify
United States 1993
United States 1996
United States 1998
United States 2000
United States 2002
Mexico United States 2003
United States 2005
United States 2007
United States 2009
United States 2011
United States 2013
Canada United States 2015
United States 2017Group stage12th3003210
Costa Rica Jamaica United States 2019Did not qualify
United States 2021
Canada United States 2023
TotalGroup stage1/173003210

2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Squad

Group stage
Main article: 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Costa Rica 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4 7 Advance to knockout stage
2  Canada 3 1 2 0 5 3 +2 5
3  Honduras 3 1 1 1 3 1 +2 4
4  French Guiana 3 0 0 3 2 10 −8 0
Source: CONCACAF
French Guiana 2–4 Canada
  • Contout 69'
  • Privat 71'
 Report
Attendance: 25,817[1]
Referee: John Pitti (Panama)
Honduras 3–0
Awarded[note 1]		 French Guiana
Report
Attendance: 12,019[3]
Referee: Yadel Martínez (Cuba)
  1. CONCACAF awarded Honduras a 3–0 win as a result of French Guiana fielding the ineligible player Florent Malouda, after the match had finished 0–0. Malouda had previously represented France and did not meet eligibility rules.[2]
Costa Rica 3–0 French Guiana
 Report
Attendance: 10,098[4]
Referee: César Ramos (Mexico)

Florent Malouda incident
Among Florent Malouda's honours include a Champions League title, a Premier League Championship and playing in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.

French Guiana's second group match at the 2017 Gold Cup against Honduras ended 0–0, but was later counted as a 3–0 win to Honduras. The reason was the fielding of 37-year-old veteran Florent Malouda, who played 80 international matches for France between 2004 and 2012.

Commonly, a player who has played a competitive match for one international team can no longer be fielded by a second. However, French Guiana was not a FIFA member. As such, they were able to field Malouda at the 2017 Caribbean Cup – which is not an official FIFA tournament – without repercussions.

In spite of a precedent case at the 2007 Gold Cup, when former French international Jocelyn Angloma represented Guadeloupe, Guiana was threatened to have their matches counted as forfeit if they were to field Malouda.[5] Unsure of the legal situation, Guiana coach Jaïr Karam left Malouda benched in their first group match against Canada.

For the second match, Karam was optimistic, saying: "Now that we’re sure about our legal situation, we’ve decided to go fight, and it’s a fight we’re going to win."[6] Malouda played as captain in the next match and led Guiana to a 0–0 against Honduras – a respectable result for the French territory. On July 14, the day of their final group match against Costa Rica, CONCACAF announced in a statement that Honduras had been awarded a 3–0 victory. In addition, French Guiana were fined an undisclosed amount and Malouda received a two-match stadium ban.[7]

References
  1. "French Guyana vs. Canada - 8 July 2017". Soccerway. Perform Group. July 8, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  2. "CONCACAF Gold Cup Disciplinary Committee Issues Decision in French Guiana Player Eligibility Case". goldcup.org. CONCACAF. July 14, 2017. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  3. "Honduras vs. French Guiana - Football Match Summary - July 11, 2017". espn.com. ESPN Inc. July 11, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  4. "Costa Rica vs. French Guyana - 14 July 2017". Soccerway. Perform Group. July 14, 2017. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  5. "CONCACAF Gold Cup: French Guiana uses ineligible player vs. Honduras; Canada ties Costa Rica". Philadelphia Inquirer. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  6. "French Guiana ignore Fifa ruling and play ineligible Florent Malouda anyway". The Guardian. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  7. "CONCACAF rules French Guiana draw a forfeit, bans Malouda". NBC Sports. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
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