Ecuador did not just earn their qualification for the World Cup once. They did so twice: first on the pitch by claiming a surprise automatic berth in the dogfight of the South America qualifiers, and then again in the courtroom as they saw off a legal challenge from Chile, who contested the birth status of the right back Byron Castillo. At least, so we think: Chile have taken their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport where it remained with less than a month to go until the World Cup.
The whole affair has rather clouded what was an impressive qualifying campaign from Ecuador, and created significant uncertainty for La Tri. Chile, who along with Colombia looked on in envy as Ecuador joined Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in the top four, insisted that Castillo, the right back who played in eight qualification games, was actually Colombian and was not eligible to play in eight of Ecuador’s group games.
