Why Mexico's Rafael Márquez can't wear the same kit as his team-mates | OneFootball

He can’t wear the same training top as the other players, or drink from the same water bottles and if he gives an interview, it must be done in front of a blank advertising board.

Mexico captain Rafael Márquez has made history this summer by becoming only the third player to feature at five different World Cups yet where some of the tournament’s sponsors are concerned, the 39-year-old is persona non grata.

That’s because the former Barcelona star is on a United States Treasury Department blacklist after he was accused in 2015 of laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel.

His inclusion on this list prohibits American individuals, businesses and banks from having anything to do with him, meaning he can’t be seen wearing the national team’s training wear because it has the Coca Cola logo emblazoned across the front.

Márquez came off the bench in Mexico’s 1-0 victory over Germany at the weekend, and if he gets on the pitch and plays out of his skin against South Korea on Saturday, don’t expect to see him named Budweiser Man of the Match.

He isn’t even allowed to stay in a hotel which has any connection to America, and the veteran defender – who is set to hang up his boots after the tournament – won’t be receiving payment for his participation in the World Cup in order to avoid complications with the banks.

Márquez has never been criminally charged for his alleged involvement with the drug kingpin Raúl Flores Hernández but his financial assets in the United States (where he played, for New York Red Bulls, between 2010 and 2012) have been frozen.

The two-time Champions League winner has strongly denied the allegations and his lawyers say they are in a “frank phase of collaboration” with the US Treasury to resolve the matter.

Meanwhile, the Mexican football federation say they have been forced to structure their World Cup operations so as not to violate US sanction laws, and FIFA have had to take special measures too.

Initially, world football’s governing body told broadcasters they were not allowed to interview Márquez, before rolling back and saying they could, so long as the tournament’s sponsors’ logos were not in shot.

If Márquez appears at a FIFA-organised press conference, the moderator cannot even be an American citizen.

Not that companies such as Citibanamex, Coca-Cola and McDonalds have any interest in being associated with the 144-time Mexican international at the moment anyway, and understandably so.

Companies that violate the regulations, even unintentionally, could be fined as much as €1.3m per violation, while wilful breaches can lead to a penalty of around €9m and a maximum 30 year prison sentence for individuals who knowingly break the rules.

One can only imagine the widespread awkwardness it would be cause if Mexico were to somehow win the World Cup this summer.