Lawyer of Ecuador: “There is no precedent for FIFA to leave the team without a World Cup”

The complaint from the Chilean Football Federation against Byron Castillo, for the possible use of false documents to play for Ecuador, is still being investigated. This Wednesday, FIFA assured that it will open a disciplinary process on the case, although from the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) they trust in a positive outcome for their interests.

Celso Vásconez, who is an external lawyer for the FEF, referred to the issue in an interview for La Red radio and stated that the highest governing body in world football has no history to leave the ‘Tri’ out of the Qatar World Cup 2022.

“Something must be said that is true: there is no international precedent in which FIFA left a team out of a World Cup for an issue like this. Does not exist. FIFA does what it should. You receive a complaint, you have to open a file to analyze it and then you will make a final decision”, expressed the lawyer.

“Ecuador’s position is strong, it has support from the judiciary, while Chile has investigative processes in which the nullity of a document was not concluded.”, added the spokesman for the Ecuadorian Football Federation.

In the same way, Celso Vásconez discussed the complaint of the Chilean authorities: “Whether justice is corrupted or not does not imply that they can be declared invalid. Chile says that it is a recurring practice to adulterate age and documents. FIFA is going to say if it is corroborated or if there is a judicial process, and they do not have the latter. The investigations they have were not confirmed by a judge”.

“Chile can file a complaint for falsification of documents and have a judge rule. The responsibility was of the federation that registered him without fulfilling requirements. In the case of Castillo, there is no falsification of documents, they register based on a sentence and the information given by the player”, highlighted the lawyer.

Finally, Celso Vásconez indicated how the litigation could be concluded. “In the event that FIFA determines responsibility, it could hardly transfer that to the FEF, because they did it with a player and a sentence. If the person falsified documents, they are victims and not participants. Going to the World Cup is not at risk or at stake. Possibly FIFA determines to disqualify the footballer and sanction him, but in no way to the federation”, he sentenced.