The Colombian Football Federation has condemned death threats against Jaminton Campaz and his family after Colombia’s World Cup elimination by Switzerland on Tuesday, and it is now asking the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to move quickly to find and punish those responsible. The federation said the threats should have no place in football, even after a painful exit on penalties.
The statement matters because Campaz was at the center of the match’s decisive moment. With the score at 0-0 in the final six minutes of extra time, he went through on goal and shot over the crossbar, sending the last-16 match to penalties. He later converted his spot-kick, but Colombia still lost the shootout 4-3. His miss became the focus of anger online, even though the defeat came only after the full shootout.
On Friday, the federation said it “categorically condemns” the threats against the life and safety of Campaz and his family. Its executive committee called on the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to open an investigation and prosecute and punish those responsible as swiftly as possible. The federation also said no sportsman, nor any member of their camp, should be subjected to intimidation for representing their country in a sporting context, and it added that football must be a space for unity, respect and hope, never a stage for hatred, intimidation or violence.
The timing gives the case extra weight. The threats came 32 years after Andrés Escobar was shot on his return to Colombia after the 1994 World Cup, when the national team had finished bottom of its group and multiple players received death threats. Escobar, who was 27, had scored an own goal in a defeat by the U.S. on June 22 before being shot on July 2. That memory still hangs over every abuse directed at a Colombian player, which is why the federation cast this episode as a threat to the wider team, not only to Campaz himself.
There is still a gap at the center of the story: who sent the threats, and what form they took, has not been made public. What is clear is that the federation wants the case treated as a criminal matter, not a social media flare-up. Campaz appeared in three of Colombia’s five World Cup matches and scored once against Uzbekistan, and Colombia had reached Tuesday’s elimination match unbeaten in normal time after topping Group K and beating Ghana in the last 32. The next step now belongs to the investigators, who must decide whether the threats can be traced and whether anyone will be held to account.
