$2800 Keeps Iraq Out of World Cup

September 29th, 2008 | by: Laurie | Comments(7)

Before we get started, let’s take a look at FIFA’s Article 55 of its disciplinary code, shall we?

“if a player takes part in an official match despite being ineligible, his team will be sanctioned by forfeiting the match.”

This is true unless you’re Qatar, apparently.

Back in March, Qatar beat Iraq, 1-0, knocking Iraq out of the early stages of World Cup qualifying. If Qatar had lost the game, by play or by forfeit, Iraq would have advanced to the next qualifying round. The problem was, Qatar used an ineligible player. Everybody agrees on this. The question was what FIFA would do about it.

The final answer? Nothing, other than sanctioning the player. Qatar advances, Iraq is out, and Iraq loses its final appeal because they were late in paying a $2800 (3000 Swiss franc) fee.

The story begins a few years back, when a certain Marcio Passos De Albuquerque, later to be known as Emerson, played as a U-20 in Brazil. When he got a bit older, he decided to try his luck abroad — first in Japan (including a long stint with the Urawa Red Diamonds) and then in Qatar with al-Sadd.

At some point in the process he decided that being Marcio Passos De Albuquerque limited his options, so he falsified his birth certificate, changing his name to Márcio Emerson Passos and his birth year from 1978 to 1981.

Lo and behold, this new Emerson was asked to play for Qatar — perfectly legal according to FIFA rules, except for the fact that the real Emerson had previously played for the Brazil U-20s. (Alternatively, if my memory is correct here, he could have played for the Qatar if he’d switched nationalities and allegiances before his 21st birthday.) He played three games with the Qatar National Team, including the one against Iraq.

Iraq didn’t discover that Emerson wasn’t who he’d claimed, but China did. They protested, and Emerson was ruled ineligible to play for Qatar. The question then became, what to do about that Iraq game?

The result?

FIFA banned Emerson but cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing, despite article 55 of its disciplinary code stating that “if a player takes part in an official match despite being ineligible, his team will be sanctioned by forfeiting the match.” Article 31 of the code states that a forfeit is considered a 3-0 defeat — a result which would have seen Iraq take Qatar’s place in the current qualifying stage.

FIFA’s disciplinary committee said the code penalties should not apply because the Qatari federation was given false information.

It rejected two Iraq attempts to appeal on technical grounds.

And now, in what I believe is the final ruling:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed with governing body FIFA that Iraq had no right to make an appeal because it was late in paying a 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,800) fee.

I have mixed feelings about the result. On the one hand, if it was the player who did the falsifications, why punish the team? But on the other, look back at the top, to Article 55. If they meant this to apply only when the team was aware of the ineligibility, shouldn’t the rule say that?

Poor Iraq. Back in 2007, when they won the Asian Cup, it looked like they’d finally recovered from the Saddam Hussein days, when Hussein’s son Uday used to torture the team when it lost.

Now, though, with 2010 out of the picture… Well, at least they they still have the memories.

Small consolation.