Chilean FA World Cup appeal still outstanding
The Chilean Football Association has confirmed it has appealed the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decision communicated on June 10 closing the proceedings initiated against the Ecuadorian Football Association (FEF) on the basis of the ineligibility of Byron David Castillo Segura, who represented the Ecuadorian National Team eight times during CONMEBOL qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
The Chilean FA notified FIFA of its intention to appeal on June 30, at which point it submitted a dossier of evidence and questions it feels that the Ecuadorian Football Association and Byron David Castillo Segura need to answer to prove their innocence.
The Chilean FA asserts that Byron David Castillo Segura, the Ecuadorian player, and an individual with a Colombian passport and different date of birth, named Bayron Javier Castillo Segura, are in fact the same person and that precipitates that the player was ineligible to represent Ecuador during the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying campaign. Both the Ecuadorian and the Colombian have the same parents.
Key points of evidence submitted by the Chilean FA in its appeal include:
· Evidence proving that the entire family of Byron Castillo was born in Colombia (father, mother and sister), live in Tumaco (excepting the father who died in 2019) and there is no brother.
· Declaration signed in 2016 by Byron David Castillo Segura to Ecuadorian prosecutors informing he had his documentation with the FEF falsified by the representatives of his first club in Ecuador (Club Norteamerica).
· Resolution from the FEF’s Investigative Commission from 2018 concluding he was born in Colombia and uses a falsified Ecuadorian birth certificate.
· Report from the Civil Register of Ecuador declaring his birth certificate as false.
On receiving notification of the Chilean FA’s appeal, FIFA instructed the Ecuadorian Football Association that it had a standard six-day window to respond to the evidence submitted. This period was extended by a further 10 days on July 19, with the new deadline set for tomorrow (Friday July 29).
Commenting on the appeal, Jorge Yunge, General Secretary of the Chilean Football Association, said: “We are completely sure about the conclusions of our investigations. It is absolutely clear that the player uses an adulterated Ecuadorian document. What is at stake here is not just a place in the 2022 World Cup, but the entire principle of fair play.”
Eduardo Carlezzo, lawyer and partner of Brazilian law firm Carlezzo Advogados, responsible for conducting the investigations on Byron Castillo and for filing the claim with FIFA, has no doubt about the conclusions achieved.
Carlezzo said: “We did a deep and responsible investigation. We hired investigators that went to the city of Tumaco and, on the ground, confirmed the player was born there. They went to a church in Tumaco and discovered the player’s baptism certificate, that was an unknown document until that moment, among other documents. Unbelievable, it was disregarded by the Disciplinary Committee”.
But not only Chile identified the adulteration made by Byron Castillo. The Peruvian FA agreed with the Chilean position and also filed an appeal to FIFA looking to replace Ecuador in the World Cup.
A decision from the Appeal Committee, chaired by the American lawyer and partner of Kirkland & Ellis, Neil Eggleston, is expected within 10 days