Costa Rica drop out of friendly against Mexico

The Costa Rican federation has announced they will not take part in a friendly against Mexico that was scheduled for September 30 in Estadio Azteca. The federation said because of the rule that people coming from Mexico will have to quarantine for 14 days upon entering Costa Rica due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that players would not be able to play for their clubs. The Costa Rican FA was looking for a special permit from the Health Ministry to bypass the quarantine, but because they couldn’t get an answer they decided to cancel the date. The Mexican federation has kept the date open and will announce a replacement team.

Mexico and Costa Rica were set to play in Estadio Azteca in what would have been their first match since the start of the COVID-19 emergency. Mexico would be playing their first match in 2020 while Costa Rica had played a non-FIFA date friendly in February against the United States. Mexico had friendlies lined up against the Czech Republic, Greece, and Colombia, but they were all cancelled because of the pandemic. Both teams are set to face each other in the Concacaf Nations League, which was supposed to take place in March but has been postponed until June 2021.

The Mexican Federation announced that Costa Rica would not participate, but that a friendly will take place on September 30th. Among the rumors to replace Costa Rica, the national team of Guatemala is one of the most mentioned. Not only are the rules to enter Guatemala are more relaxed, with only a PCR COVID test needed to enter the country, but Guatemala has a lot of local players in their National team. There were also rumors that a Liga MX club team could be the one to take Costa Rica’s place but no name has been set.