Paulo César
Wanchope's resignation from managing the Costa Rica national team following his
street-fighting in Panamá is but the last episode in that side's saga of tragic
self-destruction.
Saliently
enough, the most common remarks made by Costa Ricans immediately after the last
World Cup's feats against both Uruguay and Italy were recriminations to journalists and federation politicians back home. In those post-match
interviews in Salvador da Bahia and Recife, the likes of Celso Borges and
Yeltsin Tejeda did mention their own hard work and endless self-belief, but did so only
after lambasting those who disbelieved and actually benefited personally from
them. Jorge Luis Pinto, the Colombian coach now in Honduras, took every chance
he had to speak by mouthfuls what now seems credible about then Costa Rican
Federation president Eduardo Li.
Downplayed by
the lengthy corruption records of Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb and Chuch
Blazer, the name of Eduardo Li has drawn proportionally little media attention
perhaps as consequence of his name being quoted just 17 times within the pages
of the US Department of Justice's indictment against nine FIFA officials
(Warner's name appears 47 times; Blazer's, under the title of "Co Conspirator
#1", 50 times). According to the Attorney General's Office, which charges
Li with racketeering and wire-fraud conspiracies, the former president of the
Costa Rican Federation had personally solicited for cash in exchange of the
broadcasting rights of home World Cup qualifiers. Point number 202 of the
indictment says: "During the negotiations,
LI asked Co Conspirator #4 for a six-figure bribe in exchange for his agreement
to award the contract to Traffic USA. After obtaining approval within Traffic,
Co-Conspirator #4 agreed to the payment and caused it to be made." At the
moment, Li remains on Swiss soil fighting extradition.
What should
have been the triggering moment towards further greatness for a small
Central-American nation became instead the beginning of political dogfights and
footballing misery. Costa Ricans can legitimately argue that their national
team's quarter-finals exit from the 2015 Gold Cup was due to poor, if not
overtly bad intentioned, refereeing against Mexico with the award of that last
minute penalty kick, but up to that game Costa Rica remained the gray shadow of
the 2014 side: unable to defeat Canada, El Salvador and Jamaica. Involution.
Things to come within Costa Rica's near future
equally appear full of gloom and doom. Los
Ticos have been seeded in the qualifying Group of Death with likely rivals
being Jamaica, Panama and Haiti. All three teams manifested bigger tactical
cohesion and organization and will surely pose a serious threat to great, but
now unmanaged, Costa Rican stars such as Keylor Navas, Joel Campbell, Giancarlo González, Bryan
Ruiz and promising youngster David Ramírez.
Perhaps the short, unknown -oblivious
to matters of height and weight- guy who dare to punch and kick Wanchope comes
as the perfect analogy of things to come for Costa Rica: any former minion will compete on
the pitch against a now dispirited and disarrayed Costa Rica. Times in
San José resemble less the face of Celso Borges after beating Italy and more
the face of Eduardo Li behind bars in Zurich.
