The International Federation of Association Football, better known for its French initials FIFA, announced this past Sunday that tickets for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup are now officially on sale. Costa Rica is the host country for this major international sports event, but the shiny-new Garabito Municipal Stadium, home to the Jaco Rays Football Club of the second division, will not be one of the sporting venues selected for this honor.

FIFA is usually very restrained when it comes to awarding host country honors for its World Cup events to developing nations such as Costa Rica, which actually lost or rescinded its host designation at one point due to internal bickering. Even President Laura Chinchilla, who will certainly be present at important dates during the tournament, had to intercede in order to keep the World Cup from going to a different nation. However, when FIFA officials visited Costa Rica earlier this year, they were satisfied that the nation was ready to host the event.

The Mayor of the Garabito Canton, Marvin Elizondo, affirmed that a lawsuit against the Football Federation of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: FEDEFUTBOL) would be considered by the municipality for what they considered foul play against Jaco Beach. The Garabito Municipal Stadium was dropped from the World Cup plans and replaced by the Alejandro Morera Soto – Scotiabank stadium near downtown Alajuela.

Hosting the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup was something that everyone in Jaco Beach was looking forward to, in particular Pat Hundley, U.S. expat owner of the Jaco Rays, who beat the national First Division champion Club Sport Herediano (incidentally owned by U.S. expat David Patey) at the new Jaco Beach Stadium earlier this year. Mr. Hundley was instrumental in building the new stadium and promoting football across the Garabito Canton. Developer Rory Hascall of Crocs Casino was also looking forward to see Jaco Beach host one of the world’s most family-friendly sporting events; he is leaning on Jaco’s ongoing image improvement as a destination for families. He is not alone in this vision, the Jaco Women’s Group and Fuerza Publica are also working to revert the image of Jaco Beach.

The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be played at the Chinese-donated National Stadium, Alajuela, Tibas, and Liberia.

Tickets are available now on FIFA’s website for VISA credit and debit card holders, who will also get a discount of 20 percent on package deals to be at most games for just $28 to $50. Individual tickets go on sale on December 18^th and will cost between $6 and $14, depending on the match. Non-VISA card holders will have to wait until January 3^rd to purchase their tickets.