Chile risk FIFA ban over relegation issue, says FA chief

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - World Cup-bound Chile risk being thrown out of FIFA after local club Rangers sought to annul their relegation through the courts, Football Association (ANFP) president Harold Mayne-Nicholls said on Thursday.

A court in the city of Talca, where Rangers are based, has ordered the suspension of the promotion/relegation playoffs, prompting the ANFP to put this weekend's Clausura championship semi-finals on hold as well until the issue is resolved.

Rangers would have been in the playoffs had they not been automatically relegated after having three points docked for fielding too many foreign players in a match.

The ANFP reacted by suspending the Clausura championship semi-finals scheduled for this weekend and reporting the Rangers issue to world soccer's governing body FIFA, who do not approve of civil or government intervention in footballing matters.

"Those of us in the footballing world know that all this can bring consequences that can be lethal for Chilean football," Mayne-Nicholls said.

"What Rangers have done is prohibited in all the (football) associations in the world," he told the local radio station Agricultura. "FIFA could even disaffiliate Chile...

"According to similar procedures, they would ask us as a federation to disaffiliate Rangers or ask (the club) to forget the issue and follow football channels. If we don't do that, it will be Chile that's disaffiliated."

DOCKED POINTS

Rangers were docked points for having six foreigners on the field, one more than permitted, in the second half of their last match of the qualifying phase of the championship this month.