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Reports: New York Red Bulls and Olimpia to play CONCACAF Champions League in Costa Rica

When CONCACAF gets round to announcing the venue for this game, expect that venue to be Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional.

United States v Costa Rica: Group A - Copa America Centenario Photo by David Banks/LatinContent/Getty Images

On January 22, AS reported CONCACAF would be moving 2018 CONCACAF Champions League games out of Honduras to avoid getting caught up in the country’s ongoing political unrest, and that the nominal home teams - Motagua and Olimpia - had requested they be allowed to play their matches in Florida. This was followed by a statement from CONCACAF that it was reviewing alternative sites for the games, but had yet to reach a final decision. And that statement was followed by Costa Rican reporter Jorge Martinez’s confident declaration that Olimpia, at least, would be playing at Estadio Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica.

CONCACAF’s official position remains simply that options are under review. But Martinez’s report was quickly supported by Honduran journalist Eduardo Solano:

And Honduran outlet La Prensa cites Olimpia vice-president Osman Madrid as its source for the news that the Honduran club will play the home leg of its CCL series against RBNY in Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional on February 22, at 8:00 pm.

The game is expected to be played behind closed doors, with fans excluded because Olimpia is working through a six-game penalty imposed by CONCACAF due to crowd trouble at the Honduran club’s home field last summer.

Nothing is official until CONCACAF says it is, but the smart money is clearly on Olimpia playing New York Red Bulls in CCL 2018 in Costa Rica, not Florida.