After beating Jamaica 1 – 0 in the Concacaf qualifier, a report from the Jamaica Gleaner has accused the Costa Rican team of having 2 players with Covid during the match.
In response, The Costa Rican Football Federation denied that two players infected with Covid-19 played and released a statement saying that all players adhered to Concacaf Guidlines and were cleared to play.
The chairman of the Jamaica Football Federation medical committee told the Jamaican newspaper that when the Costa Rican team arrived in Jamica, six people tested positive for COVID. 2 of the players participated in the game, 1 other player was put in isolation and 3 other people who were not players also tested positive.
Jamaica Football Federation medical chief Dr Guyan Arscott said: ‘I can confirm that there were six Costa Ricans that tested positive for Covid-19. Three were non-players and three were players.
“We recommended that those two players should be isolated or should not be allowed to play,” Arscott said. “We had some discussions with the members of the Ministry of Health and we wondered if they had some new infections, having tested negative before they left Costa Rica. Be that as it may, with the positive test, we felt we were duty bound to recommend that they not play.”
Dalton Wint who is the Jamican Football Federation general secretary, has confirmed the body is aware of the issue and will consequently make a formal complaint to FIFA .
When the Jamaican team lost to Costa Rica it was there third consecutive defeat and therefore were no longer eligible to participate at this winter’s 2022 Qatar World Cup.