A scandal is about to explode in Costa Rica, because this Monday, the former president of the Costa Rican Football Federation, Eduardo Li, publicly accused Keylor Navas of promoting the dismissal of Jorge Luis Pinto, during his time in the Costa Rican national team, even threatening to intentionally lose matches, so that the Colombian coach was removed from his position.
Li appeared this Monday in the courts of the Central American country, to testify as part of the trial involving the selected Costa Rican Keylor Navas, Celso Borges and Bryan Ruiz, where he affirmed that the current PSG goalkeeper learned of a clause that Pinto’s contract had, which specified that in case of losing three consecutive games, he would be fired from the Costa Rican national representative, despite its historic presentation at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“I was very surprised because it was a confidentiality clause that specified that if the coach lost three games, he would be fired. Keylor Navas hit the table and told me ‘well, then we lose three games in a row”, Commented the ex-president of the Tica federation.
The trial against the three selected, considered as leaders of the Costa Rican squad, began after Adrián Gutiérrez and Juan Carlos Román, former Fedefut officials, accused Navas, Borges and Ruíz of threatening to lose games so that the strategist was fired, something to which the footballers themselves responded, filing a lawsuit before the Courts of Justice of Costa Rica for defamation.
According to the former director, the three selected, who would have threatened not to continue representing the Costa Rican team if Pinto continued in office, requested a meeting with Li himself, after the Central American squad made history and reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Brazil 2014, in which they asked that Pinto be removed from the bench, despite the fact that the federation wanted the Colombian to continue in his position.
“The issue came that they did not want Mr. Pinto. The meeting became more tense because my position was to continue. I had no justification for not renewing the most successful coach. I did not see that you could not talk. I told them that I promised to clarify,” Li said.