Mess in Costa Rica. Bliss for the USNT?

By: Herschel | May 21st, 2009

I know I’m the Wizards blogger but because I have a few contacts outside the country I was given some juicy news about the mess that the Costa Rican soccer league is going through and how this might affect/help the United States National Team, who will be visiting them in June for the next World Cup Qualifier. It’s well know that the USNT really stuggles in Costa Rica, and I believe they have never won an away game vs. the Ticos, so any problems for them can only help as they prepare for what will be a tough match.

Here’s the down and dirty version of events. The Costa Rica Championship was in its semifinal stage: Herediano vs. Brujas on one side and defending 5 time champion Saprissa vs. Liberia Mia on the other. Herediano won both at home and away to end with a final aggregate score of 6-2. Saprissa on the other hand tied 1-1 in the away game and hosted Liberia last Sunday. During the away game, 3 Liberia players accumulated their 5th yellow card and were to be suspended for the return match. Liberia appealed the yellows at the Soccer Disciplinary Commission level arguing they were mistakes by a biased referee. The Committee denied them relief and the cards/suspensions stood. Then the Friday before the game Liberia took the appeal to the Tribunal of Sports Conflicts, a higher NON-SOCCER entity that deals with issues from all sport in Costa Rica. They essentially left the realm of the “all mighty” FIFA controlled institutions and appealed to a government institution. The Tribunal hastily assembled, and with no time to study what was happening, received the appeal and left all suspensions “suspended” until they could study the case. The game therefore was played on Sunday with all suspended players on the field and Saprissa lost at home 1-0. The final was set Herediano vs Liberia Mia; leg 1 on Thursday, May 21st and leg 2 on Sunday May 24th. This schedule would allow all called up players to start training with the National Team on Monday May 25th.

But things didn’t end there; since an appeal got the players on the field, Saprissa proceeded to appeal that game to the Costa Rica Union of Organized Soccer Federation (UNAFUT) to either award them the game or have a replay without the players. It was right away denied. Saprissa then went to the all mighty Costa Rican Soccer Federation which is the highest soccer organization and which rules all these committees. The Federation went ahead and decided to take 2 weeks and study the case, suspending the finals. Now Herediano and Liberia Mia are really pissed (they need the money from the games since neither team has AIG sponsorship) and have submitted a counter appeal that was denied a few hours ago.

So how does this help the USNT you might ask? It can help in a few of ways.

First of all both Herediano and Liberia will not allow their called up players to train with the CRNT until the finals are over. The more time that passes, the closer we get to the game and these players will have little or no time to join the group. Add to that the fact that the games in all likelihood will be very physical and could result in at least minor injuries, that in a week could be gone, but if the finals are pushed back a week 9last game on May 31st), even the slightest of injuries could mean the players will miss the game. This is really bad news for CRNT coach Rodrigo Kenton.

Second important fact to take into account is that Saprissa, which usually provides a large number of players to the NT is still training, hoping that their appeal will be accepted and they will get to at least play the game again and join Herediano in the finals. This means that their players might or might not be joining the call up on the 25th (although Saprissa says they will give them up for training) and could potentially play the finals 3 days before the US-CR match in San Jose. Again, injuries and fatigue could come into play.

Third and possibly the most devastating of all for Costa Rican soccer is the fact that, like I mentioned before, Liberia went to a “non-soccer” entity established by the government (Ministry of Culture and Sports) to review this case. That folks is one of those things that FIFA hates. FIFA has always been against this and has banned players, teams and even Federations if they violate their policies and/or decisions made by their representatives in their countries.

Article 59 of Fifa Statute XIII (Disputes) states: “National associations, clubs or club members shall not be permitted to refer disputes with the Federation or other association, clubs or club members to a court of law and they shall agree to submit any disagreement to an arbitration tribunal appointed by common consent.”
“Any club which contravenes the terms outlined above may be sanctioned by being suspended from all international activity (official competitions and friendly matches) in addition to receiving a ban on all international matches (involving national associations and clubs) played in its stadium.”

Some of you probably still remember a late 2003 Joseph Blatter threat to ban Manchester United from international competitions for trying get a suspension imposed on Rio Ferdinand lifted by the English Judiciary System or the more recent decision to ban Ethiopia from international soccer because the government removed the members that were “officially recognized by FIFA”

This could mean that when Liberia Mia went to a Non-FIFA recognized entity to appeal it violated Article 59. Also, the fact that the game was played and the subsequent appeal presented by Saprissa to the Costa Rica Union of Organized Soccer Federation was denied, gave credence to the Non-Soccer Tribunal’s decision and could land the whole Costa Rican soccer Federation in hot water.

As of today FIFA has said nothing about the dispute in Costa Rica, but Saprissa has vowed to take the case to FIFA if they lose their latest appeal, putting the entire country’s soccer organization in the crosshairs of FIFA or at least in the sights of Jack Warner, the CONCACAF representative to FIFA, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, a country also looking for a spot in the next World Cup and which would love to have one of the favorites out of the competition at an early stage. Will it get that far? We’ll just have to wait and see but it’ well know that Jack Warner is kind of a shaddy guy who pushes his weight around in the higher levels of FIFA.

Regardless of what happens, this current mess in Costa Rica can only help the USNT as it prepares for its next tough away game vs. the Ticos.

Here a compilation of goals from past matches as well as the video from the last US/CR WC qualifier in San Jose.