By Victor Kanayo
Winner of the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Golden Boot award after scoring four goals Emilio Nsue has drawn sanctions on the Equatorial Guinean Football Association over his eligibility status.
This was disclosed by FIFA via a statement.
Part of the statement reads, “After considering all elements brought before it, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee was comfortably satisfied that the player was ineligible and consequently decided to declare the matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026 preliminary competition in which the player was fielded (namely Equatorial Guinea v. Namibia and Liberia v. Equatorial Guinea played on 15 November 2023 and 20 November 2023, respectively) lost by forfeit by Equatorial Guinea (by a score of 3-0).”
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FIFA also imposed a six-month ban on the player Emilio Nsue López in addition to the 150,000 Swiss Francs ($164,000) fine on the Equatorial Guinea FA.
The football governing body also placed a six-month ban from playing for any representative team of any association.
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee’s findings were notified on Friday to the parties concerned.
“In accordance with the relevant provisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the parties have ten days in which to request a motivated decision, which, if requested, would subsequently be published on legal.fifa.com. The present decisions remain subject to an appeal before the FIFA Appeal Committee,” FIFA said.
