The gesture came back to haunt them.
Australia crashed out of the World Cup after a 2-0 defeat to Peru, with the irony being that they played a huge part in their own downfall.
The Socceroos effectively dented their own World Cup chances before the tournament, after they wrote a letter to Fifa asking for Paolo Guerrero to be allowed to play.
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Reuters It was meant to be[/caption]
The Peru Captain was set to miss out on the World Cup after FIFA imposed a ban on the 34-year-old following his positive test for cocaine.
To show their support for the disgraced striker, all three captains from the opposing teams in Group C came together to see what they could do.
The captains wrote to FIFA insisting that Guerrero’s ban was disproportionate, as he didn’t knowingly ingest the drug, nor did he seek to gain an advantage.
AP:Associated Press So awkward[/caption]
France Captain Hugo Lloris, Denmark skipper Simon Kjaer and none other than Mile Jedinak, all signed a letter addressed to FIFA.
In hindsight, it wasn’t the best decision…
All class from our skipper, taking a stance in a bid to see Paolo Guerrero's ban overturned 
https://t.co/ZKCeEJnd8R
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) May 22, 2018
The letter did enough to persuade football’s governing body to temporarily lift the ban and allow Guerrero to play in the tournament.
The kind gesture would come back to haunt Australia…
Guerrero re-payed the support that Jedinak and co showed him by netting Peru’s second in their 2-0 victory over Australia.
Getty Images - Getty “I immediately regret this decision”[/caption]
The 34-year-old was a handful all match and also got the assist for Andre Carrillo’s opener in the first-half.
The result ended the Socceroos hopes of progressing from the group stages and saw them finish rock-bottom of Group C.
The letter sent in on behalf of #FIFPro and the captains of France, Australia and Denmark supporting #PaoloGuerrero! 
La carta que mandó FIFPro con las firmas de los capitanes de nuestros rivales en #Rusia2018 en apoyo a Paolo.#FuerzaPaolo #ContigoCapitán pic.twitter.com/Ss0z62jA7c
— Diego Montalvan (@DMontalvan) May 21, 2018
Who writes letters nowadays anyway?
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