Syria disqualified from 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

[masoud nekounam]

Zurich: FIFA have confirmed that the Syrian football team has been disqualified from the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, and that Tajikistan is thereby reinstated into the competition.
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee on 17 August declared the first-leg match of the Second Round (Syria-Tajikistan of 23 July 2011) to be lost by Syria by forfeit (0:3) due to an ineligible player (George Mourad) in the Syrian team taking part in this match.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee reached the same decision regarding the second leg match (Tajikistan-Syria of 28 July 2011) due to the same ineligible player also taking part in this match. In conformity with Article 7 of the Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, the Bureau of the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup took the following decisions:

1. The Syrian team is disqualified from the competition, losing their 2nd round knockout phase by forfeit.

2. The Tajikistan team is reinstated in the competition and will thus play in the 3rd round in Group C which resumes as of 2nd September 2011, in replacement of Syria.

Tajikistan will replace Syria in qualifying Group C alongside Japan, Uzbekistan and DPR Korea.

In accordance with Article 3, paragraph 4 of the Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, these decisions are final and binding, and not subject to appeal.


Source:
http://www.the-afc.com/en/tournament...fifa-world-cup

[masoud nekounam]

Thought I would post it here, but mods feel free to move it.
Btw, the ineligible player, George Mourad, plays for Mes Kerman in IPL.

[ARYA :)]

Wholly molly, that's big. I wonder who the ineligible player was and why was he ineligible for both home and away legs. Was he not in the list of players registered to participate in the competition or something???

[OFFSIDE_1]

wow ..... bloodshed in their country ..... elimination from WC in this manner ... not good times for Syria.

[Paradigm]

I think this makes the group easier, since Syria is a stronger team than Tajikistan. Btw. I have a feeling this might have political connections...

[teammelli91]

That's really sad. I actually thought Syria had the talent and potential to go far in the Qualifiers. They really proved their worth in the Asian Cup this year. And George Mourad is a very good player (Mes Kerman). He actually just started playing for Syria by switching from Sweden. I'm really shocked about this news..

[payman.T]

Another incompetent football federation not knowing naything about their players !
No wonder why I.R is good friends with the yria.

[SS-Amir]

Sad story for the country and the team.
They played good football in the Asian Cup and the Qualifier against Tajikistan.

This is not fair !

[Rooyintan]

Feel sorry for Syria but if FIFA is right, then the law applies to everyone. They disqualified Iran for olympics so now Syria for World Cup Qualifiers. Except this time they disqualified them and not force them to play for nothing.

In the case of Syria, the story is that George Mourad had played 2 official games for Sweden national team back in 2005 versus South Korea and Mexico. Therefore he's ineligible to play for Syria national team. This is FIFA's rules. For instance Behrang Safari and Aleko Eskandarian can never play for Iran national team.

However, I'm happy they replaced Syria with Tajikistan instead of banning Syria without any replacement. Only if IRIFF would setup friendly games with brother nation Tajikistan and assist them in all possible ways(technical tips, offer assistance with facilities or training,friendly games,closer ties between the two federations,etc) would make me even more happy.



Zendehbad Tajikistan.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thank you so much masoud nekounam for bringing this to our attention. This made my day. Not only was an Arab team dumped from the WC, but a Persian nation takes their place! Sweet.

[Farshad43]

When I was watching Mes - Esteghlal last week, the commentator mentioned that George was born and raised in Sweden and had played fo Sweden's U21 team. But his father always wanted him to play for his home country Syria. I don't know if he was even eligible to play for Syria in the first place or not. Not really sure if this had anything to do with FIFA's decision either

[zeerak]

dorood bar taajikestaan
iraan e bozorg

dast, dast, peeroozee

[BacheLot]

Another incompetent football federation not knowing naything about their players !
No wonder why I.R is good friends with the yria.

Yea man that's what I'm talking about..! Haha

[Martin-Reza]

I am a bit confused to be honest. Isn't the current ruling that a player can change unless he played in an official competitive game for another national team? And he only played in 2 friendlies. I also wonder how the player could have been issued a player pass at all, if he wasn't eligible.

Something is a bit fishy here. Probably the Syrian Federation was too impatient and didn't wait for all paperwork to be done in time.

And then again one gets reminded of what a dirty crook Bin Hammam was, protecting his Qatar from similar sanctions when they used an ineligible Brazilian against Iraq 4 years ago but got away unpunished. So glad he's gone.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Hopefully Qatar will be disqualified next. I can see at least 4 foreigners in their current WC squad, not including naturalized players who have adopted Arabic names:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_n..._football_team