A Nigerian played for Equatorial Guinea during the preliminary competition of Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016, this, FIFA has said.
A Cameroonian also played for the country during the tournament as investigated by FIFA.
The football governing body on Thursday said the two players ‘forged and falsified documents’ to be a nationality of the country.
According to the rule of the international leather game, Fifa allows players to represent a country if they have lived in the country continuously for a period of time, or a parent or grandparent was born there.
Hence, a statement from FIFA on Thursday said Equatorial Guinea has however been sanctioned after the investigation showed it fielded ineligible players during the preliminary competition and the use of forged and falsified documents by two of its players( a Nigerian and Cameroonian).
The statement also explained that the decision of the Committee was as a result of further investigations conducted after the initial sanctions imposed in April 2016 against Equatorial Guinea.
FIFA said 10 Equatorial Guinea players, who all participated in the preliminary competition of the Olympic event, were not eligible to play for the team. The players were Ana dos Santos, Mirian da Paixao, Adriana Parente, Dulcia Davi, Bruna da Silva, Ana da Silva, Jumaria de Santana, Vania Martins, Carolina Pereira and Adriana Costa.
In addition, Muriel Abessolo and Francisca Asangono, who also took part in the preliminary competition of the Rio 2016 event, were found to have violated art. 61 paras 1 and 2 of the FDC (Forgery and falsification) and each was sanctioned with a 10-match suspension.
This will be served in the next matches of any representative team for which they may be eligible in accordance with the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA statutes.
Equatorial Guinea will not also compete in the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic football event in Tokyo 2020.
The men’s national team were stripped by Fifa of a victory in World Cup qualifying in 2013 when none of the starting lineup was born in Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea football officials have appealed to the court of arbitration for sport against the ban by the Confederation of African Football from two editions of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. The 2018 tournament, being hosted by Ghana, is Africa’s qualifying tournament for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
Equatorial Guinea’s women’s team were disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics for fielding an ineligible player. The two-times African champions last won the title in 2012.
Before now, the men’s national team were stripped by Fifa of a victory in World Cup qualifying in 2013 when none of the starting lineup was born in Equatorial Guinea.
Fifa allows players to represent a country if they have lived in the country continuously for a period of time, or a parent or grandparent was born there.
