Eliminations: the reaction of Chilean and Argentine media after learning about the CAS ruling.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the appeals made by the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) on Tuesday and confirmed the two defeats of its national team against Peru and Chile, both by 3-0, in the qualifying rounds of the 2018 World Cup.

On October 27, 2016, FIFA determined that Nelson Cabrera, born in Paraguay, did not meet the eligibility requirements to play for Bolivia, a decision reaffirmed on January 12, 2017 by the Appeal Committee of FIFA.

In its appeal to CAS, the Bolivian federation "questioned FIFA's right to initiate an investigation into the player's ineligibility and alleged certain inconsistencies between the FIFA Disciplinary Code (CDF) and the FIFA World Cup 2018 Regulations, the latter of which stated that an official protest had to be filed within one hour after the match in question," explained the arbitration body in the statement issued on Tuesday.

The highest judicial body in sports rejected these arguments "establishing that FIFA had the right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Bolivia under the CDF within a two-year period (Articles 42 and 108 of the CDF)."

The CAS resolution also harms the interests of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, and Ecuador, who were hoping for a favorable decision for Bolivia in order to face the last four rounds of the South American qualifiers with a greater margin of error.

AFP