Advocate article on the fiasco:

A player-led boycott over field conditions led to the sudden cancellation of Baton Rouge’s first-ever FIFA-sanctioned international soccer match hours before kickoff on Sunday, sparking conflict between the Honduras men’s national team and a foundation to promote soccer in Baton Rouge.

Both sides have threatened legal action to recoup lost expenses, and at least 2,000 fans that purchased tickets were left disappointed and in need of a refund.

Honduras was scheduled to play the Barbados national team on Sunday evening at BREC’s Olympia Stadium, a venue that can hold 7,000 people and frequently hosts both soccer and football games.

The game was abruptly canceled Sunday morning after the Honduran team released a statement saying it would not participate because of poor field conditions and a failure by organizers to meet several contractual obligations for transportation and lodging. Honduran news outlets reported Sunday that many of the team’s best players boycotted the match after practicing on the field Saturday.

The Baton Rouge Capitals Soccer Foundation worked with Mandeville-based Caravana Sport & Music Entertainment to organize the game, foundation spokesman James Vilas said. Officials with Caravana signed the contract with both countries’ national teams and brought in the soccer foundation to handle logistics in Baton Rouge, Vilas said.

The game was first announced on Caravana’s Facebook page June 3, a little over two weeks before the game was scheduled.

Caravana could not be reached for comment Monday.

Vilas blamed the game’s late organization on difficulties finding a field with natural grass, which is required for a FIFA-sanctioned men’s match, then a lengthy process to sign a contract with BREC to rent Olympia Stadium.

“It was a last-minute agreement, part of which was waiting on BREC to authorize the use of the stadium,” Vilas said. “We had teams that were ready, willing and able for those dates. We had to wait and wait and wait for that to be approved (by BREC).”

Two weeks before the game, Honduras sent a representative to Baton Rouge to inspect the stadium and the field, Vilas said. The representative approved the venue but requested that patches along either sideline be filled with a mixture of sand and dirt to prevent injury and that the locker room and press box be cleaned, Vilas said.

BREC officials were present for the inspection, and BREC staff filled the patches before to Saturday, Vilas said.

Photographs of the field taken by drone show large patches in the grass along either sideline, where football players normally stand on the sidelines.

Gerardo Ramos, Honduras’ general manager, told Honduran newspaper El Heraldo that players risked injury by playing on the Olympia Stadium field.

“In the beginning, we visited the city to see everything, they gave us logistics and field guidelines and — truthfully, this decision is made because several of those guidelines were not fulfilled at the levels that were needed,” Ramos said.

Vilas blamed BREC for the field conditions and said they could have been addressed in time if the rental agreement was signed sooner.

“I feel let down, disappointed in (BREC’s) response,” Vilas said.

But BREC disputes that it was ever responsible for making the field meet the team's specifications under the rental agreement signed with the organizers.

“BREC had an agreement with a local, third-party vendor for a rental of Olympia Stadium,” spokeswoman Cheryl Michelet wrote in a statement. “Nowhere in the agreement did it mention anything about field conditions or field requirements.”

The statement notes that BREC’s Burbank Soccer Complex will host the US Youth Soccer Southern Regional Championships beginning on Friday, an event that will bring hundreds of soccer players to compete on BREC fields.

“We are one of the official hosts of the upcoming regional soccer tournament at Burbank Soccer Complex which was planned well in advance with partnering organizations,” reads the statement. “We take our responsibility so seriously for those types of events that we have shut down the fields for intensive maintenance and field rest to ensure that conditions will be at the expected level.”

Olympia Stadium is used for soccer matches by the Baton Rouge Soccer Club Capitals, which is currently in season. It has also been used for international friendly matches in the past, Michelet said.

The Honduran federation is considering legal action against the organizers for lost expenses, Ramos said.

“There are expenses that we must incur today and those are the claims that the federation will make through its legal department,” Ramos said.

Meanwhile, the game’s organizers incurred more than $200,000 in expenses for flights, hotels, referees, fees and stadium rental, Vilas said.

The organizers plan to request BREC return the stadium rental deposit and will seek to recoup the remaining expenses from the Honduran team, Vilas said.

“I feel like we complied with everything they requested,” Vilas said. “If we don’t get anywhere, then we will be reaching out to FIFA today and see what types of sanctions we can request against the Honduran national team if they don’t want to make us whole. That’s all we’re requesting.”