Syria disqualified from 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

[AtbinVali]

Hm, if I am not wrong their player Chanko also played friendlies with the national team of Sweden, before he changed to Syria.

[shahname]

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

I was just about to say the same thing. You can see the resemblance in IN-COMPETENCE between these two countries with friendly relations. It is only countries like Iran and Syria with flourishing stupidity and incompetence that get disqualified for making such childish and unprofessional mistakes.
Bashar Assads days are counted and be omide khoda, mullahs in Iran are next in line... down the drain in the toilet of history...

[Ab-Gosht]

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.

He was eligible to play for syria their FA didnt follow the right procedure it seems so...

[Aryan.Arvandi]

More descriptive article:
AFP - Syria's football federation announced on Friday that their national team have been banned from the 2014 World Cup qualifiers by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player.

Syria reached the qualification group phase by beating Tajikistan over two legs -- 2-1 in the away leg, 4-0 at home -- in a preliminary qualifying tie in July.

However, the Syrian federation was then informed by FIFA that the latter game would be awarded as a 2-0 win for Tajikistan after Tajik officials claimed Syria midfielder George Mourad had previously represented Sweden.

Mourad scored in the away leg on July 23 after coming on as a substitute and also played the final 20 minutes of the return leg on July 28.

In the light of FIFA's decision, Tajikistan will replace Syria in Asian World Cup qualifying Group C alongside Japan, Uzbekistan and North Korea.

Syrian federation president Farouq Sarriyeh announced that he would petition the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the decision.

He said he possessed "the necessary documents" from the Swedish federation proving that Mourad was eligible to play for Syria.

Mourad represented Sweden once, playing 13 minutes of a friendly match against Mexico in January 2005.

Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20110819-...aign=DTN+Iran: