The World is a Ball: Last to announce the list, Ecuador excludes athlete who threatened his place in the World Cup

Last team to announce the squad for the World Cup in Qatar, despite being one of the first two to debut – on Sunday (20), against the host –, Ecuador left Byron Castillo out of the list of 26.

The 24-year-old right-back, who participated in 8 of the 18 games the Ecuadorians played in the South American qualifiers (seven of them as a starter), became a threat to the team’s participation in the World Cup, in the event that he reached the Sports Court and was only closed a few days ago.

The Chilean football federation had access to documents that showed that Castillo was not born in Ecuador, but in neighboring Colombia, even though his birth certificate states that he is Ecuadorian. Also, he would have been born in 1995 rather than 1998.

The Chileans, who with Castillo on the field drew a match against Ecuador (0 to 0) and lost another (2 to 0) in the qualifiers, turned to FIFA, asking for the four points not gained in these clashes.

That would make Chile move up the table, while Ecuador would fall, and qualify to play in Qatar.

The football governing body, however, denied the request in September, despite the failure to appear, on the stipulated date, of Castillo to testify.

(I’ll open an opinionated parenthesis: if the verdict in FIFA was for the exclusion of Ecuador, it would bring a series of problems for the entity, since the tickets for the Ecuadorians’ games were already made, a large part had already been sold, fans of the country already had booked tickets and accommodation, and so on. The easiest thing, politically and to avoid lawsuits, was to leave everything as it was.)

Chile did not give up and appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), the highest court of sports justice, which is located in Switzerland.

But there was no way. Last week, CAS determined that Ecuador can participate in the Cup.

There was, however, a sporting punishment, which will be applied later on: the country’s selection will start the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup (in the USA, Canada and Mexico) with a deficit of three points.

There was also a fine for the FEF (Ecuadorian Football Federation), of just over US$ 100,000 (R$ 533,000).

Here’s what CAS said in a statement to justify the decision: “As the nationality of a player from a national federation is determined by national laws, Byron Castillo was eligible to play in the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022.”

But the Lausanne court said that the Ecuadorian federation had violated FIFA’s Disciplinary Code by using a document containing false information, which would justify the sanctions.

“Although the player’s Ecuadorian passport was authentic, some information provided on it was false,” CAS said, adding that it was convinced that “the player’s date and place of birth were incorrect as he was born in Tumaco, Colombia, on June 25, 1995”.

“the panel [que fez o julgamento] considered it necessary to hold the FEF responsible [federação equatoriana] for an act of forgery, even if the FEF was not the author of the forged document, only the user”, concluded the Swiss court.

The federation of Ecuador, however, maintained the position that Castillo was always eligible to act for the country and that it would analyze if there is any action to be taken to reverse the punishment.

Possibly, a speech just to please the Ecuadorians, since the top hats of the FEF must be satisfied that the country has not been excluded from the World Cup.

They must want to keep the matter as far away from the news as possible that, in a mistrustful coincidence, coach Gustavo Alfaro preferred this Monday (14th) to remove Castillo from his squad, in a suitable way to bury the controversy.