Before the Swiss courts, the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) will present its arguments to annul the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS, acronym for Tribunal Arbitral du Sport, in French) on the reduction of 3 points for the start of the next qualification for the 2026 World Cup and has paid $100,000 fine in Byron Castillo’s case in response to an appeal by Chile’s National Association of Professional Football (ANFP).

Francisco Egas, on the Byron Castillo case: “FEF can win a match against TAS in the legal field”

“The FEF will appeal the Castillo award to the Swiss Federal Court. The grounds for appeal are limited and are listed in Art. 190 Swiss International Law. What is sought is to annul the award of TAS. Out of more than 700 appeals, only 12 were accepted,” detailed Argentinean Marcelo Bee Sellares, a lawyer specializing in sports law. Twitter.

TAS ratifies Ecuador in Qatar 2022 Sanctions it with a fine and points deduction in the next round in the case of Byron Castillo

And Francisco Egas, president of FEF, in dialogue with Facebook radio, from Quito, hinted at what Ecuafútbol intends to do with regard to the punishment handed down by TAS. “The Federation – and its legal area – is preparing the reaction, that is, the measures that we must take after the resolution of the TAS. The resources we have left are before the Swiss courts to overturn that verdict.

“TAS went too far, they messed with the sovereignty of Ecuador,” says the sports lawyer

“We believe that we should go that way with all our strength because the CAS verdict was ambiguous, without an investigation that would show anything. (It was applied) on the basis of suspicion and many rights were violated (…). In the table (from the qualifiers to the 2026 World Cup), we will start with less than three points, until this is cleared up. It will be necessary to return them in court if they cannot yet be returned in the legal field. But I think we have the right to return it,” he added.

The controversy arose from unverified information posted on Twitter by radio journalist Sebastián Bejarano Snail from Colombia. “The trial in Ecuador has just ended, where evidence was presented that the player Byron Castillo, who was invited by Gustavo Alfaro for several qualifying dates, is Colombian. Born in Tumac, Nariño. He currently plays for Barcelona,” he wrote on the social network on April 26.

The next day, Bejarano commented: “I apologize. The evidence shown by the lawyer at the press conference. These are different contexts (…). Tell all the Ecuadorians and Byron Castillo himself that they just qualified for the World Cup in Qatar. I am passing on the information of Dr. Luigi García, I have nothing against you. Greetings to the beautiful country and beautiful people you have, enjoy the World Cup”.

Based on that false information, the Chileans began the process of seeking qualification for the 2022 World Cup, but on two occasions the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) ruled strongly in favor of Tri.

And they approached TAS, along with Peru who also wanted to play in Qatar. On November 8, the sports justice body issued a decision in response to a complaint filed by both, which stated: “The FEF breached Article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code by using a document that contained false information. For counterfeiting cases, FIFA does not refer to national law. Consequently, for FIFA, the decision of the Ecuadorian judicial authorities regarding the forgery of the player’s passport is not necessary to establish that the document is fraudulent, in accordance with Article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code”.

“In this case, while it is true that the player’s Ecuadorian passport was authentic, the information contained in that passport was false. Specifically, the Arbitration Panel was convinced that the player’s place and date of birth in the player’s passport were incorrect, as the player was born in Tumac, Colombia, on June 25, 1995. Consequently, the Arbitration Panel held the FEF liable for the offense of forgery pursuant to by article 21, paragraph 2 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, even if the FEF was not the author of the forged document, but simply used it,” he asserted. (D)