FIFA keeps Ecuador in World Cup

The FIFA Appeals Committee dismissed the claim on Friday. of the federations of Chile and Peru against Ecuador for the incorrect alignment of the player Byron Castillo in the qualifying phase for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and ratified the participation of the Ecuadorian team in the competition.

“Based on the documentation received, among other considerations, it has been estimated the player shall be deemed to hold permanent Ecuadorian nationality, in accordance with art. 5, par. 1 of the Regulations Governing the Application of FIFA Laws,” FIFA announced.

After a hearing held in Zurich, the FIFA body closed the case and upheld the position of the Disciplinary Committee, which rejected in June a complaint for Castillo’s alleged improper alignment in Qatar’s eight qualifying matches of the preliminary phase. 2022, before the alleged use of false documents to register as Ecuadorianin eight Qatar 2022 qualifying matches.

In a statement, FIFA confirmed that “after reviewing the documentation received from the parties and holding the relevant hearing, the Appeals Committee ratified the decision of the Disciplinary Committee of close the investigation of the case initiated against the Ecuadorian Federation (FEF)”.

“The decisions of the Appeal Commission have now been communicated to the affected parties. This decision is subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport“, he added.

The soccer federations of Chile (FFCH) and Peru (FPF) appealed to the Appeal Commission of FIFA against the decision adopted by its Disciplinary Committee on the possible non-compliance of Byron David Castillo Segura with the call criteria to participate in the Ecuadorian national team.

The Chilean Federation argues that the player was born in Tumaco (Colombia) on June 25, 1995 with the name Byron Javier Castillo Segura, according to a birth certificate with that information, instead of Byron David Castillo Segura, born November 10, 1998, as shown in Ecuador’s civil registry.

Doubts about the origins of Castillo, currently a Mexican León playerhas always been present in Ecuador since the start of his career, but settled in 2021 when a judge ordered him to be registered as Ecuadorian, giving legal validity to all his Ecuadorian documentation.

Since then, the right winger has been called up by Ecuador and he played eight qualifying matches for Qatar 2022, including two against Chile which will be key to La Roja’s aspirations should FIFA decide to penalize Ecuador with the loss of points for incorrect alignment.

FIFA’s disciplinary body then ruled that it is “obligatory to consider and respect the decisions of national state courts (as well as national laws) in relation to people’s identity or nationality”.

The Ecuadorian team is included in group A of the Qatar World Cup with the host team, which will be measured on November 20 in the opening, Senegal and the Netherlands.