Ecuador are reportedly set to be expelled from this year’s World Cup over claims their defender Byron Casillo falsified his birth documents to represent the country while he’s actually Colombian.
The country’s FA had been investigated by FIFA over the allegations raised by Chile, who finished seventh in South American qualifying and missed out on a place at the Qatar tournament, while Ecuador finished in fourth place.
Chile claimed they had proof that Castillo was born in Tumaco, Colombia in 1995, and not in the Ecuadorean city of General Villamil Playas in 1998 as stated on his official documents. It claimed the Barcelona of Guayaquil full-back used a false passport and birth certificate.
A new report from Mundo Deportivo claims FIFA has already made its decision to kick Ecuador out after concluding its probe into the allegations and an announcement will be made in the next few days.
The report also claims there is a faint hope from Italy that they might be able to take advantage of Ecuador’s potential expulsion and be included in the World Cup despite being dumped out by North Macedonia in the play-offs.
That might be possible if FIFA award Ecuador’s place to the team with the best position in their World Rankings instead.
Eduardo Carlezzo, a lawyer representing Chile, previously urged FIFA to speed up their investigation after compiling evidence and called on them to inflict the ‘harshest sanctions’ on Ecuador.
‘Chilean soccer is clear that a serious offense has been committed by the player (Byron Castillo). We have no doubt, with the documentation we have in hand, [de] that he is Colombian. We have a narrative that has a beginning, a middle and an end,’ the lawyer told radio ADN.
‘I’m sure that FIFA has knowledge and the need to speed up this very quickly. For this week we expect a demonstration.
‘The Civil Registry of Ecuador declares in a legal ruling, which we have and that we sent to FIFA, that Castillo’s departure certificate does not exist; and, if it doesn’t exist, it’s fake.
We cannot validate that a Federation accepts and validates a crime. They deserve the harshest sanction from FIFA’, concluded the lawyer.
The FIFA rules in cases of ineligible players require results to be overturned as a 3-0 loss.
