FIFA’s disciplinary committee has sanctioned the Equatorial Guinea Football Association with expulsion from the Women’s World Cup scheduled for France in 2019 if its team qualified.
According to a a statement on the world football body’s website on Thursday, FIFA also fined the association 100,000 Swiss Francs.
This was for fielding ineligible players during the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016 and the use of forged and falsified documents by two of its players.
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.
In particular, the Committee considered that the following 10 players, who all participated in the preliminary competition of the Olympic event, were not eligible to play for the team.
1. Ana dos Santos
2. Mirian da Paixao
3. Adriana Parente
4. Dulcia Davi
5. Bruna da Silva
6. Ana da Silva
7. Jumaria de Santana
8. Vania Martins
9. Carolina Pereira
10. Adriana Costa
In addition, Muriel Abessolo and Francisca Asangono, who also took part in the preliminary competition of the Rio 2016 event, were found guilty.
They 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.