A PASSPORT issue has wreaked havoc on Costa Rica’s preparations for the World Cup.
Luis Fernando Suarez’s side were due to play Iraq in a warm-up friendly ahead of the tournament in Qatar but had to cancel over passport stamps.
The Costa Rican delegation had requested the Iraqi government not to stamp their passports as they made their way to Basrah from their training base in Kuwait, according to the Daily Mail.
The report suggested the reasoning behind this was the thought that “Iraqi passport stamp would cause difficulties in accessing other countries in the future.”
However, the Iraqi government refused this request, leading Costa Rica to cancel the friendly match.
The Costa Rican federation confirmed the cancellation in a statement: “The match against Iraq was suspended.
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“An agreement that was made with the non-stamping of passports was not respected and for this reason, it was decided not to enter Iraq and cancel the match.”
The last time Costa Rica played a game was against Nigeria in San Jose on November 9.
They also played two friendly matches in September against South Korea and Uzbekistan.
However, without the game against Iraq, it does mean that the player will have gone 16 days without a match by the time their World Cup opener against Spain kicks off on November 23.
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After the game against Luis Enrique’s side Costa Rica will face Japan and then Germany in their remaining Group E fixtures.
In 2014, they made it out of their group which contained Uruguay, England, and Italy as they went on a run to the quarter-finals.
