FIFA’s disciplinary committee has expelled Equatorial Guinea from the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France for fielding 10 ineligible players at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Rio last year.
A statement from FIFA on Thursday said Equatorial Guinea has been sanctioned after investigation showed it fielded 10 ineligible players during the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016, 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.
The ineligible 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.
The other two players were Muriel Linda Mendoua Abessolo and Francisca Angue Ondo Asangono. They were handed 10-match bans after being found to have used forged and falsified documents.
Equatorial Guinea will not compete in the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic football event in Tokyo 2020, and 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, being Africa’s qualifying tournament for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
They were initially disqualified from the 2016 Nations Cup finals in Cameroon (replaced by Mali) as well as the next two tournaments.
The world football governing body also fined the African country 100,000 Swiss Francs.
