--- title: Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Resigns After Brawl description: Paulo Wanchope, the coach for Costa Rica's national soccer team, resigned from his position after getting into a fight on Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-13T05:03:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:08:01.861Z article:section: Sports og:title: Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Quits After Brawl og:description: Fight happened during a match that Wanchope claimed was rigged og:url: https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Quits After Brawl twitter:description: Fight happened during a match that Wanchope claimed was rigged twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Resigns After a Brawl by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Aug 13, 2015 5:03 AM UTC by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Aug 13, 2015 5:03 AM UTC Paulo Wanchope, the coach for Costa Rica’s national soccer team, quit his position after getting into a fight on Tuesday during an under-23 match in Panama, the [Associated Press](http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/aug/12/costa-rica-paulo-wanchope-resigns-punch-up) says. A video shows Wanchope, visibly agitated, opening a side gate onto the field, then pushing a young boy aside. He then gets into a shoving match with a man in the stands, who, the [_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/aug/12/costa-rica-paulo-wanchope-brawls-with-man) reports, was a security guard, after the man tries to restrain him. Ramon Cardoze, vice president of the Panama Soccer Federation, said Wanchope attempted to get on the field multiple times, claiming to officials that the match was rigged. > [](https://twitter.com/br%5Fuk/status/631608647391379456) On Wednesday, the Costa Rican Soccer Federation released a [statement](http://fedefutbolcr.com/wanchope-se-disculpa-con-costa-rica-y-panama/) regarding the matter. “The important thing is to ensure the welfare of the team, so I will step aside,” Wanchope said, according to the statement. Wanchope hasn’t been the Costa Rican team’s coach for long — the former Derby, West Ham and Malaga player was appointed to the post in February after serving as the team’s interim coach during the 2014 World Cup, the _Guardian_ says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/"},"headline":"Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Resigns After a Brawl","datePublished":"2015-08-13T05:03:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:08:01.861Z","description":"Fight happened during a match that Paulo Wanchope claimed was rigged","url":"https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/","keywords":["Soccer","Panama","fight","Costa Rica"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/soccer/","name":"Soccer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3995608/paulo-wanchope-soccer-costa-rica-resignation/","name":"Costa Rica's Soccer Coach Paulo Wanchope Resigns After a Brawl"}}]}] ```