Equatorial Guinea women field 10 ineligible players

Lausanne (AFP) – The Equatorial Guinea women’s team were disqualified from next year’s Women Africa Cup of Nations and the 2019 World Cup by FIFA on Thursday for fielding 10 ineligible players.

All 10 of the ineligible players were born in Brazil, although the majority have been playing for Equatorial Guinea since the 2011 World Cup.

The Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana next November doubles up as qualifying for the World Cup in France the following year.

The ineligible players featured for the oil-rich African country during qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, while two other players provided “forged and falsified” documents to claim nationality, FIFA said in a statement.

The two players, Muriel Linda Mendoua Abessolo and Francisca Angue Ondo Asangono, have been banned for 10 matches, and the Equatorial Guinea Football Association has been fined 100,000 Swiss francs ($102,165).

It is not the first time Equatorial Guinea’s women’s team has been punished for fielding ineligible players. They were kicked out of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics for the same offence.