The 'Santiago Pact', the strategy that could leave Colombia and Peru without a world cup

With two days to go before the last date of the South American Qualifiers heading to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, there is speculation of the possibility of a possible Santiago Pact to leave the Colombian and Peruvian teams without a chance of repechage.

The question is like this: if both Colombians and Peruvians lose at the end of the qualifying rounds and, on the contrary, the Chileans win, it will be the latter who will have the chance to play a playoff, against the third place in Asia, to make their attendance at a World Cup event.

In this context, he talks about the possibility of a Santiago Pact: an alleged agreement for Uruguay, already qualified, to allow itself to be defeated by Chile, in such a way that La Roja will keep alive the illusions of returning to a world championship; the last was that of Brazil 2014.

The Lima Pact, to which the publication refers, was the alleged agreement that Colombians and Peruvians reached on the last day of the qualifiers on the way to Russia 2018: if they tied, they both qualified for the World Cup, but if any of them lost, Chile would take their position. In the end, in Lima, the selection of the crossed band and the Tricolor added up one point, a fact that aroused in the nonconformity of the Australs, who could seek revenge.

One image that attracted attention in that match — played on October 10, 2017 — was that of Paolo Guerrero, a Peruvian benchmark, and Radamel Falcao García, coffee idol, talking, covering his mouth with his hand, apparently about the news that both teams were qualifying (Peru, through the repechage) with the one-goal draw.

Redgol also argued that, as Chile's technical director — Martín Lasarte — is Uruguayan, “he could perfectly talk to his compatriots for a little hand.” The little hand could also come thanks to the close relationship between players like Luis Suárez and Arturo Vidal, who shared at FC Barcelona, and Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Mauricio Isla, who share in the ranks of Brazilian Flamengo, according to the Chilean media outlet.

In the face of speculation, the Peruvian press has also shown its concern, such as the newspaper La República, which commented on its website:

Despite the rumors, or rather, approaches, because there are certainties of the so-called Lima Pact or Santiago Pact, it is the Peruvians who have the greatest chance of playing the repechage: they depend on themselves. In second place are the Colombians, who will come from breaking a streak of seven games without scoring, as long as they beat Venezuela, led by José Néstor Pekerman, as a visitor. The third option will be for the Australs, whose greatest weapon, besides football, will be faith. We will have to wait until the 90th minute of each match that could be the last representative of Conmebol in the world cup.

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