Until a Swiss court makes a final ruling on sanctions against the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) and right-back Byron Castillo, it should not be considered for the matches that will begin the qualification process for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Byron Castillo case: this is how TAS explains the reasons for the penalties to the FEF and the deduction of 3 points in the qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

On November 8, 2022, two weeks after the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS, acronym for Tribunal Arbitral du Sport, in French) confirmed that the Tricolor should participate in the highest FIFA tournament against the allegations of the federation of Chile and Peru, who demanded his exclusion from the tournament because of Castillo, who had legal problems because he was not born in Ecuador, but in Colombia, and irregularities were allegedly made in his birth registration.

‘Byron Castillo should not go to the World Cup; our rivals can play under protest’, warns Carlos Villacís, former president of Ecuafútbol

Something that has never been verified and that justice has determined that the former Barcelona player be re-registered in the civil register.

“The CAS ruling on Byron Castillo was rushed. They wanted to make a decision before the start of the 2022 World Cup,” says the FEF director

However, the TAS decided to punish Ecuador on an economic and sporting level: the first is that it must pay 10,000 Swiss francs to the federations of Chile and Peru for the costs incurred in the process and take over the costs of the trial; and the second was that in the next qualifiers, according to the World Cup in 2026 (a tournament in which 48 countries will participate), they have to start with 3 points less.

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

Andrés Holguín, Castillo’s lawyer, explained: “Indeed, we worked with the FEF, a Swiss lawyer was hired because this is, as you will understand, an ordinary Swiss court, which would be more or less the Supreme Court of Switzerland. An appeal for annulment was filed on behalf of FEF and on behalf of Byron, it just happened last month, it is being processed and as soon as we know something, we will let you know.”

The lawyer prefers that steps be taken cautiously: “I wouldn’t call him, I don’t think the FEF will call him.” Because that would be a risk, now is not the time to call Byron. Byron’s future in the national team will largely depend on this resource, I don’t believe he will be called up until we get the final sentence declaring the TAS decision null and void.

“If we don’t have a solution by the beginning of the qualification cycles (in September of this year), we would start with less than 3 points, but during the qualification rounds, if a decision is made declaring the nullity of this TAS Judgment, at that time, 3 points will be returned to us ,” he expanded, before admitting that he himself would not have invited Byron,” he concluded in a dialogue with Radio Quito Sports area.

The Tricolori would begin their participation in the qualifiers for the next World Cup in Buenos Aires against Argentina, the current champions. (D)