However, national team captain Gustavo Alfaro has chosen not to bring Byron Castillo, who played qualifying matches for the country and also called Ecuador’s participation in the World Cup into question.
Just twelve days before the World Cup premiere, it became clear that Ecuador can keep the World Cup place after Chile and Peru wanted Ecuador to be excluded from the World Cup for using defender Byron Castillo, who is actually Colombian.
The judge in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Cas, acquitted Ecuador and said that the International Football Association Fifa’s rules approved that Castillo played both in the qualifiers and in the World Cup.
Despite this, the defender is not in Ecuador’s squad. Ecuador plays in Group A with host country Qatar, Senegal and the Netherlands.
Ecuador and Qatar meet in the WC’s opening match on Sunday.