Antonio “The Turk” Mohamed broke the silence after Liga MX Final and made his position clear on the controversy he was involved in with David Faitelsonby ensuring that, for him, the journalist “no longer exists”after considering that he crossed a line by questioning his professional ethics as technical director of Toluca.
The first statements of the scarlet strategist came during his participation in the program Spicy Soccer from ESPN, where he explained with detail why he felt directly attacked after Faitelson’s comments about the decision to leave goalkeeper Hugo González on the bench in the second leg against Tigres. For Mohamed, it was not a sports criticism, but a personal statement.
“Ethics and morality are totally separate, it is making a decision. You can say, I hear there at the table that they say that they do not agree with the change and it seems perfect to me. Obviously, everyone has their opinion and always with respect. They are going to tell me there at the table someone who says: ‘Mohamed has neither ethics nor morals’, And because he changed his goalkeeper, right? It seems to him that he is totally misplaced. So, I demanded an apology and they told me that it was just a comment, and that is not a comment. It’s not a comment. There you are messing with me. So, I have to defend myself and that’s what happened. And there the issue is closed for me. Until the day there is an apology, for me there is no longer that person. And then, with respect to the decision, there is an emotional part in this.”, commented the technical director of Toluca, Antonio Mohamed on the ESPN ‘Futbol Picante’ program.
The origin of the conflict dates back to the night when Toluca was crowned champion against Tigres. After the final whistle, Mohamed refused to give an interview to TUDN, which generated surprise among viewers. It was later learned that the decision was motivated by his anger with Faitelson, who during the broadcast harshly questioned the change in goal.
“It seems to me that Mr. Mohamed is disrespectful, that he lacks morals, ethics, it cannot be that a boy who also took balls from you in the first leg is punished by leaving him on the bench today. The message for Hugo González is terrible, it is infamous, just as we have praised Mohamed, today he disappoints me with this decision,” said Faitelson.
The commentator’s words triggered an immediate response from the Argentine coach, who reacted in the middle of the championship celebration, before cameras and microphones.
“With Faitelson, he was very out of place, he was serious. It’s shit, he talked about my ethics and my morals because I made a change to the goalkeeper, before the broadcast, I was in the locker room, I came down here to see if he has balls,” Mohamed expressed.
The exchange did not end there. Days later, David Faitelson addressed the issue on his program Faitelson without Censorshipwhere he offered his version of the events and recounted how the direct confrontation with the Mexican soccer champion coach took place.
“He who takes risks with a point of view can make a mistake… in the middle of the celebration I received a call from the producer, where he told me that Mohamed was upset and did not want to give interviews to TUDN until I came down to see him. I confronted Mohamed and told him that I was here and that if he had any problem we could solve it, but that he should give interviews to Televisa.
“I told him ‘let’s go to an office, a more forbidden place, because there is press and they are going to record us’, he was beside himself. When I told him to give interviews to others from TUDN he replied ‘I will only give the interview to Televisa if they tell you to go to hell’, a shame because Mohamed was very rude, haughty, vulgar, a real bullshit.”
The controversy revealed the tension between journalistic criticism and technical decisions in a context of maximum pressure, with a Liga MX Final as the setting.
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