Costa Rica’s World Cup preparations have suffered a setback after a planned friendly against Iraq was canceled due to a passport dispute. The Costa Rican team was on its way to the match that would take place in Basra on Thursday by bus from their training camp in Kuwait.
They had already agreed with the Iraqi government that their passports would not be stamped, but they reneged on the promise. There have been concerns that the Iraqi passport stamp could cause problems for entry into other countries in the future.
It was decided to completely stop the friendly match as they will stay in Kuwait. It is a factor that slows down the preparations for the KA2022 tournament in Costa Rica, as it was their last preparation match. They will travel to Qatar on Friday with Spain, Germany and Japan.
The Costa Rica national team will not be able play their last pre-2022 World Cup friendly because of a passport issue. Keylor Navas and company were due to face off against Iraq in a warm-up game ahead of the tournament on Thursday at Basra International Stadium in the Western Asian country.
However, the match has been cancelled due to the fact that the Iraqi government were insisting on stamping the passports of the Costa Rica delegation as they attempted to enter the country from their base in Kuwait, which was not part of the original agreement when the match was scheduled. Were individuals’ passports to be stamped, their entry to other countries would be conditioned by political security issues.
The game in Iraq
The game in Iraq would have been Costa Rica’s second 2022 World Cup warm-up game after they defeated Nigeria 2-0 in San José last week. This will be Los Ticos’ sixth participation in the competition, with their best performance coming on their debut in 1990, when they reached the round of 16.
They were scheduled to play at Basra International Stadium in the friendly match on Thursday
There was concern that the Iraqi passport stamp would cause problems in future entry into other countries.
As a result, it was decided to cancel the friendly match and stay in Kuwait, putting a dent in Costa Rica’s tournament preparations as this was their last warm-up match. “The match against Iraq has been suspended,” the Costa Rican federation said in a statement.
“An agreement made with passports not to be stamped was not respected and it was therefore decided not to enter Iraq and to cancel the match.”
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