The International Football Federation (FIFA) has rejected Chile's appeal regarding the alleged falsification of the nationality of player Byron Castillo and his eligibility to participate with the Ecuador national team in the qualifiers for the "Qatar 2022" World Cup. The Chilean team claims that the player was born in Colombia on June 25, 1995, under the name Peron Javier Castillo, according to his birth certificate, and not as Peron David Castillo, born on November 10, 1998, as it appears in Ecuador's civil registry.
FIFA's appeal committee confirmed Ecuador's qualification for the World Cup finals. The committee stated in an official statement on Friday: "According to the documents submitted, it has been assessed that the player should be considered a permanent holder of Ecuadorian nationality in accordance with Article 5 of Section One of the FIFA application rules." The committee announced the closure of the case and upheld the decision of the Disciplinary Committee, which had rejected Chile's and Peru's appeals back in June.
Both Chile and Peru had appealed to the appeals committee against the Disciplinary Committee's decision regarding the potential applicability of the player calling rules to Peron Castillo for participation with the Ecuador national team. Doubts regarding Castillo's origins, the player from León in Mexico, had been present in Ecuador since the beginning of his career, but they were settled in 2021 when a judge ordered his registration as an Ecuadorian citizen and validated his Ecuadorian birth documents.
Since then, he has been called up to the senior national team and participated in 8 matches in the Qatar World Cup qualifiers. Ecuador is set to play in Group A of the Qatar World Cup along with the host nation, Senegal, and the Netherlands.
