“Investigate the annulment of the verdict.” This is the official slogan of the Ecuadorian Football Association as of November 8, 2022, the date the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS, abbreviation in French) applied the penalty that took effect in the qualifiers currently underway for the 2026 World Cup: let the national team start this qualification process with a deduction of 3 points. The sanction was imposed due to the lineup of Byron Castillo in several matches of the Tricolor at the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

With the defeat against Argentina (1-0) and despite the victory over Uruguay (2-1), Ecuador does not enter the units on the table, precisely because of the CAS sanction. Only on the following October 12, when they play in La Paz, against Bolivia, the chosen ones of Félix Sáchez Bas, in case of victory, would start counting points on the table.

How many dates, with sports results determined by FIFA and Conmebol statistics, will it take to resolve the petition filed by the FEF in the Swiss Federal Court? On the occasion of this legal battle, Francisco Egas, the president of the Federation, made statements this Tuesday.

‘One example’

“It (the question of FEF punishment) is not closed. We sent the cancellation request more than a month ago and we are waiting for a decision on the matter. It is the only instance that can cancel the CAS verdict today,” said the presenter in an interview with l.Radio Redonda.

In November 2022, twelve days before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, CAS announced in a statement that “FEF violated Article 21 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code by using a document that contained false information (Castillo’s passport, identified by managers as Colombian from Peru and Chile)” and that’s why he awarded the penalty.

Last July, EL UNIVERSO had access to a document in which TAS explains in detail the reasons for its decision to sanction Tricolor. Under the title ‘Arbitration Decision’, the 86 pages contain background information, procedural evidence, requests from the parties involved, testimony, pro and con versions of the theses of the federations of Ecuador, Peru and Chile (the latter two received a penalty for being imposed).

“FEF behaved badly”

Regarding the deduction of 3 points in the qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup, CAS gives the following explanation: “The panel (four judges) considers that the FEF has behaved badly. The FEF, without questioning the information and documentary evidence it has about the suspect player (Byron Castillo), decided to take a risk and invite him to play for the national team in some World Cup qualifiers.”

However, Egas, speaking to a station in Quito this Tuesday, said: “We believe we have a solid case. We did not understand the TAS ruling. We believe that it is contradictory, unfair and that it even went beyond its limits to issue a judgment of such proportions.”

Among the evidence taken into account by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reach its verdict is an audio recording of an interview between Colonel Jaime Jara (former president of the FEF Commission of Inquiry, in the administration before Egasova) and Castillo. Although the Federation rejected the validity of that recording, CAS admitted it in the process, considering it “admissible” and “reliable” evidence.

Entrance, according to TAS

Lawyers Massimo Coccia (Italy), Romano Subiotto (Belgium), José María Alonso (Spain) and Francisco Larios (United States), members of the CAS who made the decision to punish, say in the CAS arbitration decision that “the player ( Castillo ) expressly admitted in an interview with Colonel Jaro that he was not born in Ecuador on November 10, 1998 as Byron David Castillo Segura, as stated in his Ecuadorian passport, but on June 25, 1995 as Bayron Javier Castillo Segura and that he came to Ecuador to Tumaco, Colombia.” And that “in addition, there is no indication that the player (Castillo) was forced or coerced to give specific answers during the interview.”

In himto Redondo Egas commented on this: If the result (of the annulment of the CAS verdict, brought by the FEF before the Swiss Federal Court) was not positive, we will analyze with our lawyers whether we can insist on this matter.

As of January 28, 2021, Judge Ronald Guerrero Cruz of the North 2 Criminal Justice Unit, based in Guayaquil, declared habeas data which Byron David Castillo Segura presented and ordered, in a letter dated February 25 of that year, addressed to the Civil Registry of Ecuador, to register the soccer player as an Ecuadorian citizen. That is, for all intents and purposes, Castillo is, by judicial order, Ecuadorian. (D)