Mexico’s World Cup squad return luxury watches gifted by content creator Stevewilldoit

Mexico’s World Cup squad have returned a collection of Rolex watches gifted to them by American content creator Stevewilldoit.

Stephen Deleonardis, known as Stevewilldoit online, where he has over 1.5million subscribers on YouTube, presented every member of the Mexico squad with a watch at their training base in the build up to their last-32 tie against Ecuador. In a video uploaded to his channel, he said the collection totalled $1million, with each watch ranging from $30,000 to $90,000 in value.

Mexico said in a statement posted on the team’s official social media channels that by “mutual agreement” the squad decided to return the watches to Deleonardis, which were gifted by the content creator “on his own initiative”.

Asked by midfielder Obed Vargas why he had presented the team with the gift, Deleonardis explained he lived in Mexico and bet $2m on the side to beat Ecuador in the last-32, which he said earlier in the video would return a $1m profit — the supposed total value of the watches. Mexico went on to win the game 2-0.

Restrictions around offering and accepting gifts are laid out in Article 21 of FIFA’s Code of Ethics. World soccer’s governing body states that gifts are prohibited unless they have “symbolic or trivial value”.

FIFA also says gifts are not permitted if they are offered or accepted “as a way of influencing” those bound by the code to do something, or act against any rules, or create a conflict of interest.

The body says violations of the rule can be punishable with a fine of at least 10,000 Swiss Franc ($12,500) and “a ban on taking part in any football-related
activity for a maximum of two years”.

Co-hosts Mexico have won all four of their World Cup matches so far and have yet to concede a goal. They host England in the last 16 at the Azteca Stadium on Sunday.