Tense hours are lived in Ecuador y Chile regarding the possible irregularity with Byron Castillo’s documentation. The ‘Roja’ filed a complaint with FIFA regarding the nationality of the footballer in question: they claim that Castillo is Colombian by birth, so his participation in the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers was irregular. However, in ‘El Tri’ they seek to offer messages of peace: if there was false documentation, the injured party should be the player and not the Federation.
MIRA: FIFA received and responded to Chile’s claim on the Byron Castillo case
From the Ecuadorian Football Federation they have flatly denied that they will miss the Qatar 2022 World Cup due to an irregularity. In principle, they are unaware of this problem and secondly, they are blaming Byron Castillo in case there is any false documentation. In the FEF they are clear that this might not harm them directly.
“The Civil Registry carried out an investigation to find out if the player violated any rule or falsified any document, but that process was closed and there were no indications that the player committed an illegal act,” Celso Vazconez, external lawyer of the Ecuadorian Football Federation, pointed out in conversation with El Mercurio.
The responsibility would be of the player and not of the FEF
However, the expert in sports law assured that in the hypothetical case that the governing body of world soccer determines that the situation is not completely in order, the sports sanction should be for Castillo and not for Ecuador with its quota to Qatar.
“If it is found that the player falsified documents, FIFA would have to sanction him, not the Federation because in this case the FEF would also be a victim. Different is what happened with Bolivia, which registered Nelson Cabrera in an erroneous way, without complying with the protocols”, stated the lawyer.
What remains to be known now with all this panorama in front of us is to know what the conclusion will be, taking into account that FIFA accepted the claim presented by ‘La Roja’.
