The lawyer Eduardo Carlezzo, representative of the Chilean Football Federation, exhibited new evidence on the complaint once morest his similar Ecuador by the player Byron Castillo for alleged falsehood of nationality, three days before FIFA delivers a ruling on the controversial case.
At a press conference in Santiago, Carlezzo showed a baptismal certificate for Castillo, a ceremony that would have been held in the Colombian town of Tumaco, in the southern department of Nariño, bordering Ecuador.
According to the lawyer, this and other evidence would confirm that the 23-year-old soccer player is Colombian and not Ecuadorian, and that his participation in the Ecuadorian team during the South American qualifiers would be flawed.
“That document is very important to me (…) Byron’s birth certificate in Colombia is dated November 25, 1996, it is recognized and validated by the church on June 1, 2022,” Carlezzo told reporters.
The lawyer has already argued that Castillo’s Ecuadorian birth certificate is false. He explained that the soccer player “was born on July 25, 1998 in Colombia”, but is using a birth certificate “from November 10 in Ecuador”.
“It would be scandalous if FIFA did not know this information. There are many things,” Carlezzo said.
Chile demands points and wants to go to the World Cup
The controversy was unveiled in early May when the Federation of Football from Chile formalized before FIFA a complaint once morest his counterpart from Ecuador for the “use of a false birth certificate, false declaration of age and false nationality” of the player Byron Castillo, who would have been born in Colombia.
Chile demands the points in the two matches that it played once morest Ecuador for the qualifiers, accusing that Castillo played in those matches in the tricolor team without being Ecuadorian.
“We are looking for the points to go to the World Cup,” said Carlezzo.
FIFA must issue the first instance ruling on Friday, following having received the documentation from both Chile and Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian coach, Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, has stated that they have acted “right” and that they won the classification “on the pitch.”
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