Brazil Awarded Victory, World Cup Berth

Three-time champion Brazil reached the 1990 World Cup finals Sunday when it was awarded a 2-0 victory in a qualifying game abandoned by Chile, which claimed its goalkeeper was hit by a signal flare.

The decision by the International Federation of Association Football in Zurich, Switzerland, made Brazil the fourth nation to qualify for next summer’s 24-nation tournament in Italy. Yugoslavia qualified Wednesday and defending champion Argentina and host Italy have automatic berths.

Federation officials said the ruling is final, eliminating Chile from the tournament. It was based on federation rules declaring teams abandoning games are the losers. Brazil was leading 1-0 with 22 minutes remaining when the incident occured.

The Brazilian Soccer Confederation was fined $11,750 because four fireworks and similar devices were set off by the crowd of 160,000 at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium.

The eight-member panel of the 1990 World Cup Organizing Committee heard both sides and examined match reports by referee Juan Carlos Loustau of Argentina, the linesmen and two federation observers.

The panel considered only Chile’s decision to quit and decided it was “not competent” to decide whether goalkeeper Roberto Rojas was injured. The federation’s disciplinary committee will decide if Rojas will be punished.