FIFA has reportedly launched an investigation of Costa Rican forward Joel Campbell over the player's feigning of foul and injury against the US national team last Friday, according to Costa Rican newspaper Al Día.
The play resulted in a yellow card for USMNT defender Matt Besler, a caution that forced him to serve a one-game suspension against Mexico much to his dismay. CONCACAF guidelines state that only in a case of mistake identity can a yellow or red card be retroactively appealed.
FIFA's reported investigation hasn't stopped Costa Rica head coach Jorge Luis Pinto from responding with his own wild accusations of misconduct and unsporting behavior against the USMNT.
Pinto followed news that Campbell is set to be investigated with this response: "It worries me and makes me angry, because of the illegal gesture from the US of placing cameras behind the coaching staff. They can't refute that, but we shouldn't have allowed that. It's a camera that confuses the rule.
"It is an agressive and resented act from the US," Pinto continued. "I don't think Mexico is interested in anything like that, with all the problems they have on top"
When contacted on Friday by MLSsoccer.com, a U.S. Soccer spokesperson said that there were no cameras behind the technical staff, only on the sideline and endlines. The spokesman added that the camera that captured the incident was not an illegal camera as Pinto claimed, but instead that of a U.S. Soccer communications videographer, who had permission to shoot the match from that location from Traffic Sports for a postgame highlight package.
