Rangers Relegation Challenge Could Cost Chile World Cup Place

The Chilean national team may be excluded by FIFA from the upcoming World Cup due to Rangers' attempts to have themselves spared from relegation from the Apertura.

Rangers, based in Talca, have been relegated from Chile's first division as a result of being docked three points for fielding one foreign player too many in a league fixture.

The club have taken their case to the courts, an act which has not been viewed with approval from FIFA. The game's governing body, who take a dim view of government intervention, gave the Chilean Football Federation 72 hours to halt Rangers' attempt to prevent their relegation.

Should the FFC fail to take the matter in hand, the national team could bear the brunt of the punishment, with FIFA's executive committee to discuss the issue next week.

A FIFA statement, sent to Asociacion Nacional de Futbol Profesional president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, reads:

"We beseech your association to call on your affiliated club... to withdraw the case it took to the Chilean courts of justice within the next 72 hours or... announce the pertinent sanctions against your affiliated club.

"If your association does not adopt the necessary measures as we have indicated, the case will be put to Fifa's executive committee in its session of December 3, 2009 in Cape Town... so it considers imposing a suspension against (the ANFP)."