Libertadores row over banned pair

Adjust font size:

QUITO, Ecuador -- LDU pair Jairo Campos and Patricio Urrutia are free to play in the Libertadores Cup despite serving suspensions at home in Ecuador for their part in a brawl, the Ecuadorean Football Federation (FEF) said on Tuesday.

Paraguayan club Tacuary lodged a protest after Urrutia and Campos played for LDU against them in a preliminary round, first leg tie last week.

Urrutia scored LDU's goal in a 1-1 draw in Asuncion. The second leg is due to be played later Tuesday.

"The players are eligible to play in this international tournament," FEF president Luis Chiriboga said on the federation's Web site.

Uruttia and Campos were among seven LDU players who were banned for their part in a vicious brawl which followed a league match against Barcelona in December.

The brawl left four Barcelona players needing hospital treatment and overshadowed the rest of the final day of the season. Barcelona had four players suspended.

The FEF said that it had reported the case to soccer's governing body FIFA which had not yet decided whether the suspension would be applied outside Ecuador.

Urrutia, banned for four months, and Campos, banned for six months reduced to three on appeal, are the only two in LDU's squad for the Libertadores.

Three LDU players -- Ecuador striker Agustin Delgado, Paraguayan defender Carlos Espinola and Peruvian midfielder Roberto Palacios -- were banned for one year.

"We have sent all the documents, with the videos, and FIFA will decide at the next meeting of the disciplinary committee whether the punishments will be international or only for Ecuador," said Chiriboga.

The FEF said the meeting was due to take place later this month.

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

---

• Dubai World prepares to sell overseas assets
• Is Afghanistan really 'graveyard of empires'?
• U.S. military children arrested in Japan
• Are Zhu Zhu toys safe? Consumer group says no
• Key global climate talks begin in Copenhagen

• Irish PM to quit over payments scandal
• NATO chief: Afghan troop increase likely
• Militants hunted as calm retuns to Basra
• Pressure on Bush to skip Olympics
• BA sending misplaced T5 baggage to Milan

• Recruiting suicide bombers (2:50)
• London was lucky (2:36)
• Cars in London rigged as bombs (3:48)
• Second explosives-packed car foun (2:32)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)