TAS punishes Ecuador, but it will play the World Cup

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) reported this Tuesday that it confirmed the eligibility of Ecuadorian player Byron Castillo, but imposes a harsh penalty on the Ecuadorian Football Federation for a violation of FIFA regulations. In any case, Ecuador will be able to play in the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

TAS released its decision on Tuesday in the arbitration procedure between the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), Chilean Football Federation (FFC), Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF), the player Byron Castillo Segura and FIFA.

the CAS the appeals presented by the FPF and the FFC are partially allowed and annuls the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee of September 15, 2022.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirms that “the FEF is considered responsible for using a document containing false information, thus violating article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and therefore punishable in accordance with article 6 thereof”.

So, CAS imposes “a deduction of 3 points in the FEF in the next preliminary round for the World Cup, and ordered the FEF to pay a fine to FIFA of 100,700 euros within 30 days after notification of the award”.

The controversy is tied to the eligibility of player Byron Castillo to participate in the matches of the Ecuadorian national team corresponding to the Conmebol qualifiers for the final stage of the Qatar World Cup 2022 between September 2021 and March 2022.

In May 2022, the FFC filed a complaint with FIFA alleging possible fraud of documents establishing Byron Castillo’s Ecuadorian nationality, as well as his alleged ineligibility to play for Ecuador in matches between September 2021 and March 2022 corresponding to the World Cup qualifiers.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has initiated a procedure disciplinary and issued its decision on June 10, 2022, in which it dismissed all charges against the FEF and terminated the procedure.

The FPF and the FFC appealed this decision before the FIFA Appeal Committeewhich dismissed said appeals and confirmed the decision of the first instance.

On September 28, 2022, the FPF and the FFC filed appeals against the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee before the CAS.

The appeal filed by the FPF is directed against the FEF and FIFA. The FPF requested that Ecuador be excluded from the World Cup in Qatar and replaced by Peru, which is the best placed team in the table after Ecuador.

The appeal filed by the FFC is directed against the FEF, Byron Castillo and FIFA.

The FFC asked CAS to determine the player was ineligible in the eight games he played in the qualifiers and he considers these games lost by Ecuador, which would put Chile in fourth position in the South American qualifiers.

The arbitration panel in charge of resolving the matter held a hearing on November 4 and 5, 2022 in person in Lausanne (Switzerland).

When the hearing was over, it was considered and unanimously resolved that the FEF did not violate article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, as the player is eligible to participate in the qualification phase of the World Cup.

In view of the fact that heThe nationality of a player to play for a national federation is determined by the law of each countrythe soccer player is eligible to play in the Ecuadorian national team, because the Ecuadorian authorities recognize that he has Ecuadorian nationality.

Also, the CAS establishes that “the FEF violated article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code by using a document containing false information.”

“For cases of counterfeiting, FIFA does not refer to national law. Consequently, for that body “the decision of the Ecuadorian judicial authorities regarding the falsification of the player’s passport is not necessary to determine that the document is false, in accordance with article 21 of its Disciplinary Code.”

“In the present case, while it is true that the Ecuadorian passport of the Player is authentic, the information contained in said passport is false. In particular, the arbitration panel is convinced that the player’s place and date of birth in his passport are incorrect since he was born in Tumaco (Colombia) on June 25, 1995,” he added.

“Consequently, the construction of arbitration takes that into account the FEF is liable for an act of forgery in accordance with article 21, paragraph 2 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, even if the FEF was not the author of the forged document, but only used it,” he stressed.

CAS considers that “the appropriate penalty for said violation is a 3 point deduction in the next preliminary qualifying phase for the World Cup and a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs”.

Arbitration practice indicates that “there is no violation of eligibility rules and that there are a series of mitigating circumstances, among which is the fact that the FEF initiated a disciplinary procedure against the player, which was paralyzed by order of an Ecuadorian judicial authority.

It also defines that “The deduction of 3 points shall not be imposed in the qualifying phase for the World Cup in Qatar, but in the next edition, since the player is eligible to play in the qualifying phase of 2022, since he considers that the said competition was not affected by the aforementioned violation of the FEF “.