Mexico have been forced to return luxury watches that were gifted to them by the YouTuber Stevewilldoit.
The content creator — whose real name is Stephen Deleonardis — said on Instagram that he had given every player in the Mexico squad and member of staff on the team an “expensive” watch ahead of their round-of-32 clash with Ecuador.
Mexico won that game 2-0 to set up a blockbuster showdown with England in the round-of-16 on Sunday evening.
Deleonardis also posted a video to YouTube that showed him gifting the Mexico squad the watches, in which he said: “I love you guys and you guys are gonna f—— win tomorrow.”
The video then shows Deleonardis handing out presidential Rolexes to the team. The players go up one by one to collect each watch.
When asked why Deleonardis gifted them the watches, he said: “I live in Mexico and I bet $2 million on you guys tomorrow so everything’s free.”
The team then hoisted Deleonardis in the air and presented him with a Mexico shirt with “Steve” on the back.
But FIFA’s Code of Ethics has strict rules around accepting gifts.
According to Article 21, those bound by the FIFA code can only be offered or accept gifts or benefits which have “symbolic or trivial value.”
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As a result, Mexico have had to return the watches.
According to the team’s official X account, returned the gifts by “mutual agreement” and Deleonardis gave the team the watches on his “own initiative.”
Mexico will be hoping to overcome England in order to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time in 40 years.
