Badge of the Green Army

Someone seems to have gotten their Irelands mixed up at the Costa Rican Football Federation (Spanish acronym: FEDEFUTBOL) earlier this week. In announcing an upcoming friendly match for the National Men’s Football Team of Costa Rica, the FEDEFUTBOL website displayed the crest of the Irish Football Association, a regulatory sporting body of Northern Ireland, while making reference to the Republic of Ireland. Could there have been leprechauns at work ahead of Saint Patrick’s Day?

As some Irish folk would say, ’twas but a bit of a hash. The problem is that some sports media outlets are now reporting that Costa Rica will play the National Football Team of the Republic of Ireland while others claim that La Sele will play Northern Ireland instead. Thankfully, we have Graham Luney of the Belfast Telegraph to sort things out:

Rumours of Northern Ireland facing Costa Rica in June have been greatly exaggerated.

The Costa Rica Football Federation outlined details of a match against Northern Ireland on its official website this week – but that was news to the Irish Football Association.

The Irish FA badge was used to illustrate the story and inevitably the Green and White Army went searching for the truth.

But Irish FA chief executive Patrick Nelson and the association’s president Jim Shaw say they are as amazed at the news as supporters.

The confusion raises the possibility that Costa Rica were in talks with the Republic of Ireland rather than the Irish FA

To use the current Internet slang vernacular, it is very possible that someone at FEDEFUTBOL was the victim of a geography #fail, one that has prompted some news outlets to report incorrect information about the June match, which is just as bad as getting Costa Rica and Puerto Rico mixed up (happens more often than you think).

FEDEFUTBOL has already corrected the news report on its website to reflect that La Sele will, in fact, play against The Boys in Green of the Republic of Ireland, also known as The Green Army. We would love a match against the Norn Iron, Green and White Army of Northern Ireland, but that will have to wait.

As the dearly beloved Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth once said:

Irish blunders are never blunders of the heart.

In this case, however, it was a Tico blunder, not an Irish one. Still, one cannot help but to think of leprechauns having a good laugh at this bit. Somewhere, Irish eyes are smiling.