El Salvador clubs drop plan for independent league

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador’s first-division football clubs have dropped a plan to form an independent league separate from the Salvadoran Football Federation (FESFUT), an idea sparked by a row over the national team.

All 12 elite clubs agreed to scrap the move towards a standalone competition, after weekend matches organized under FESFUT were postponed, the federation said in a statement on Tuesday.

The decision was made on Monday in a meeting of club chairmen held just a week after 11 of the clubs had voted for the creation of a separate league, it said.

Regular FESFUT matches are to resume on the coming weekend.

The U-turn on the independent league was apparently due to an inability of the clubs to agree among themselves. The president of the association of first-division teams, Lisandro Pohl, announced he would step down in the next few days.

The 11 clubs had rebelled against the federation after blaming it for a string of bad international results. They had announced last week they would no longer make their players available for the national side.

The Salvadoran national team, ranked 99 on the FIFA table, was last year eliminated from competing in the 2018 World Cup. It has been limping along since 2013, when almost all the major clubs were dismantled because of a scandal over fixed matches. - AFP