Case Byron Castillo: Why was Bolivia sanctioned in 2016 and now Ecuador is not sanctioned?

The tense wait ended and finally FIFA decided not to sanction Ecuador for the alleged poor registration of the player Byron Castillo, after the claim presented by Chile. Thus, in the absence of the appeals of the case, the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers will not be modified and the northerners will play the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

In Chili there was the hope that they can be given the points of the matches in which they faced Ecuador (a loss and a draw) in which Byron Castillo played, since they alleged that the winger is Colombian and not Ecuadorian, and that there was falsification of documents so that he can play for ‘El Tri’.

In addition, there was a close antecedent where the FIFA it did sanction a South American country by removing points for registration errors: it happened with bolivia in 2016, a fact that benefited the Peruvian team. But the question is, what is the difference between both cases? Why was the case of Nelson Cabrera sanctioned in Bolivia and not that of Byron Castillo in Ecuador?.

Cabrera case

After the tie Chili in view of bolivia (0-0) on September 6, the Chilean Football Association filed a claim almost a month later, on October 4, asking for the points for the defender’s misregistration Nelson Cabreraborn in Paraguay who became a Bolivian national and was summoned for that double date in which he beat Peru and tied with Chili.

Although the claim was made out of time, Chili He argued that he did it because he found out about the bad registration during the game and had to take some time to investigate the matter well. The claim was that Nelson Cabrera did not complete the five years of residence in the highland country to be able to play for the local team.

The regulation, from 2008, establishes that a nationalized player must have five consecutive years of residence in the country from which he acquired nationality in order to defend the national team. Nelson Cabrera arrived at Bolivar of Peace in 2012 and played against Peru Y Chili in September 2016, so he was barely three years and seven months old.

As it was a breach of the regulations, which all managers must have at hand, FIFA decided to sanction bolivia taking away the points from their victory against Peru and the draw against Chile.

bolivia even appealed to TAS trying to dismiss the claim for being out of date, but the agency assured that the FIFA it can also act ex officio before a disciplinary procedure within a period of two years.

On November 1, the delivery of points to Peru Y Chiliwhich in the long run benefited Bicolor because it achieved the post for the playoffs over the southerners.

Case Byron Castillo

The theme of the side of the Ecuadorian team is not yet specified. The FIFA will make the resolution public in case each federation requests the reasoned decision, but in its statement the soccer entity reports “closing the disciplinary procedure initiated against the FEF”, that is, the claim is dismissed.

On May 11 the FIFA initiated the disciplinary process on an alleged falsification of documents so that Byron Castillo obtain Ecuadorian nationality. Chili He presented alleged documents where the falsification would be verified: birth certificate without fingerprints, that his birth certificate was only entered into the institutional system in 2012, when Castillo was 14 years old, among others.

The Ecuadorian response presented before the FIFA argues that Byron Castillo He is an Ecuadorian citizen in the civil and sports sphere, registered with the corresponding authorities and that in each call the documents were presented where the player’s nationality is proven.

As explained to this medium by an expert lawyer in sports matters who preferred to keep his name confidential, “FIFA does not find anything irregular”, that is why that initial ruling. “From the decision of the file it follows that there is nothing that is considered irregular. To say otherwise is to speculate about something that is not known, which is the file”pointed out the specialist.

It is presumed that what has not been clear is what would be the participation of the Ecuadorian Football Federation in the supposed falsified documents that the player has presented in order to acquire nationality.