Where was he born like that – Newspaper Kommersant No. 165 (7366) dated 09/08/2022

The Appeals Committee of the International Football Federation (FIFA) on September 15 will consider the high-profile case of Ecuador national team defender Byron Castillo, which can affect the composition of the participants in the World Cup starting on November 20 in Qatar. The case was opened at the request of the Chilean Football Federation, which claims that Castillo played for the Ecuadorians on forged documents, which means that in all matches with his participation, the Ecuadorians should be counted as a defeat. If this happens, the Chilean team will go to the world championship. However, FIFA does not seem to be eager to change anything. In June, the Chileans’ protest had already been rejected. True, they assure that they have prepared new evidence.

The International Football Federation has notified the football federations of Chile and Ecuador that on September 15, the FIFA Appeals Committee will begin hearings in the case of the defender of the Ecuadorian national team Byron Castillo. It depends on its outcome which of the two South American teams will go to the World Championship starting on November 22 in Qatar.

The case is based on the statement of the Chilean side that Byron Castillo had no right to play for the national team of Ecuador, since he is not even a citizen of this country. The Ecuadorian team took the fourth place in the qualifying tournament in South America, the Chileans became the seventh. From the South American continent, the teams that take the first four places in the qualification directly get to the World Cup. In total, Byron Castillo made eight appearances for Ecuador in the last qualifying round, including both matches against the Chileans in which Ecuador received four points. The Chile national team insists on awarding technical defeats to the Ecuadorians in all games in which Castillo was involved. If this happens, then the Ecuadorians will fall out of the four, and the Chileans will take their place.

The scandal erupted after the Chilean side managed to get documents showing that Byron Castillo was in fact a Colombian. According to the official version, confirmed by a birth certificate issued in Ecuador, Castillo was born on November 10, 1998 in the Ecuadorian city of Playas and received the name Byron David Castillo Segura. However, there is another birth certificate issued already in Colombian Tumaco (located near the Ecuadorian-Colombian border). It follows from it that a certain Byron Javier Castillo Seguro was born on July 25, 1995. Chileans believe that we are talking about the same person and proceed from the fact that the real one is an earlier birth certificate. If so, then questions arise about whether Castillo has Ecuadorian citizenship or the legality of obtaining it. In support of its position, the Chilean side also presented a baptismal certificate issued in the same Tumaco in the name that matches the one indicated in the Colombian birth certificate. It is also noted that both of Castillo’s parents are Colombian, while his sister was born and still lives in Tumaco. Differences in dates and names on birth certificates could explain the presence of Castillo’s brother (in both birth certificates, the names of mother and father are the same). But neither he nor any of the representatives of the Ecuadorian side mentioned this.

The Football Federation of Chile has already provided all of the above arguments to FIFA, but back in June it ruled in favor of the Ecuador national team. Since then, the Chileans have pressed for an early appeal hearing and demanded that the judges interrogate Castillo himself. The FIFA letter to the Ecuadorian Football Federation contains an urgent request to ensure the participation of a football player in the process. The hearings will be held via videoconference. Neil Eggleston (USA), Christian Andreason (Faroe Islands), Salman Al Ansari (Qatar) will consider the case.

Meanwhile, the Chilean side does not seem to want Castillo to actually testify. As the lawyer of the football player Andres Holguin told the Ecuadorian radio station Radio Redonda, his client is not at all obliged to do this. “He doesn’t have to say anything. He is simply not a party to the process. And in general, if a client does not want to testify, I cannot force him, just as FIFA judges cannot. We are not in the USA, everything is different here, ”said the lawyer.

In the meantime, the Secretary General of the Football Federation of Chile, Jorge Jung, assures that the consideration of the case in the FIFA Appeals Committee will not be reduced simply to a re-examination of the positions of the parties declared for the first time. “We have sent previously unreleased documents to FIFA that clearly show that Byron Castillo was not eligible to play for the Ecuadorian national team,” he said. If this time again FIFA will side with Ecuador, the Chilean football federation intends to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Considering, however, how long CAS considers cases, there will be very little chance of getting a verdict before the start of the championship (and it begins just with the Qatar-Ecuador match on November 20).

Alexander Petrov