Will the Chileans play instead?
What happened?
News feeds exploded with information that the Ecuador national team is about to be suspended from participation in the final tournament of the 2022 World Cup, and Chile will take its place. Allegedly, FIFA should announce this on Friday, June 10th. The reason for the possible ban is that the Ecuadorian player Byron Castillo did not have the right to play for the national team.
This story has been going on for a month – since the beginning of May. It was then that the Chilean federation turned to FIFA, pointing out the unlawful, in their opinion, the fact of Castillo’s participation in the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches. The International Federation decided to study this issue.
The player Byron David Castillo Segura, as well as the suspension of the said player from participation in eight qualifying matches of the Ecuadorian national team in the World Cup qualifiers. 2022. In view of the foregoing, FIFA has decided to open disciplinary proceedings in connection with the potential suspension of Byron David Castillo Segura in relation to the above matches.
The Chileans claim they have evidence that Castillo, who plays for Barcelona from Guayaquil, was born in the Colombian city of Tumaco and that the 23-year-old used a fake birth certificate and passport.
The idea of this investigation is to state clearly and transparently all the arguments we have and back them up with documents. Whoever speaks the truth cannot be afraid of the truth,” Chilean lawyer Eduardo Carlesso said on June 8 on the Mexican TV channel TV Azteca.
Castillo appeared in eight matches in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, in which Ecuador scored 14 points out of a total of 26. He started seven times, spent 614 minutes on the field and made one assist.
Final qualifying table for the 2022 World Cup in South America Recall that according to the rules of the qualifying tournament, the first four teams qualify for the 2022 World Cup directly, and the fifth plays a play-off match with a team from Asia – on June 13, Peru will meet with Australia.
In the draw for the final tournament, Ecuador was drawn into Group A along with the Netherlands, Senegal and Qatar.
Ecuador can really punish?
Yes, this is quite possible if the FIFA disciplinary committee decides that Castillo was not eligible to play for the Ecuador national team.
However, there is no such solution yet. The information that “El Tri” will be excluded from the number of participants in the final tournament, and Chile will take its place, comes from the lawyer of the Chileans, Carlesso – he stated this in the same interview with TV Azteca, after which it scattered around the world news feeds. But Carlesso is a person of interest, and it is definitely not worth taking his words as one hundred percent fact.
What are the options for punishment?
Ecuador can count losses in all eight matches in which Castillo took part. Then El Tri will have 12 points left, and they will drop to ninth place in the table.
In this case, Chile, after recalculating the results, will really rise to fourth place and, in theory, will receive a ticket to the 2022 World Cup. Castillo didn’t play in any of the matches against Colombia and Peru, so they won’t make any profit. But he went out in both meetings against the Chileans – Ecuador took four points there (0:0, 2:0). Thus, Chile will have 24 points, but on goal difference they will be higher than the Peru team, which will remain in fifth place – nothing changes at all for the Incas.
A precedent similar to the situation with Ecuador happened not so long ago. In September 2016, FIFA awarded two technical defeats to Bolivia in the qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup with Peru and Chile – Nelson Cabrera, who played for the Bolivians in these meetings, had no right to enter the field. In addition, the Bolivian Federation was also fined.
Another option for punishment is that FIFA cancels all the results of Ecuador in the qualifying tournament without revising the outcomes of individual matches. In this scenario, Peru rises to fourth place and gets a direct ticket to the 2022 World Cup, Colombia becomes fifth and goes to the joints, and Chile is left with nothing.
But such a scenario is rather unlikely, including due to problems with logistics. The Peru national team is already in Qatar, where they are due to play a play-off against Australia on June 13.
When will FIFA announce the results of the proceedings?
It is not known exactly. One of the versions is June 10th. Argentine journalist Javier Lanza was the first to write about this. But it is obvious that FIFA does not have the opportunity to drag out the case – on June 13 and 14, the last play-offs will take place and all participants in the 2022 World Cup will be determined.
