Equatorial Guinea have been expelled from the 2019 Women's World Cup in France for fielding 10 ineligible players during the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament 2016 Rio in Brazil and using forged documents for two of its players.
The latest sanctions come on top of their ban from competing at the 2020 Olympics, which was issued last year. Fifa has also imposed a fine of $102,000 (N ) on the country's football association.
An investigation by the world governing body found the 10 players were "not eligible to play for the representative team of Equatorial Guinea".
The decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee comes as the result of further investigations conducted after the initial sanctions imposed in April 2016 against Equatorial Guinea.
In particular, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee considered that the following ten (10) players, who all participated in the preliminary competition of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016, were not eligible to play for the representative team of Equatorial Guinea:
1. Ana Lucia Nascimiento dos Santos
2. Mirian Silva da Paixao
3. Adriana Soares Parente
4. Dulcia Maria Davi
5. Bruna Amarante da Silva
6. Ana Cristina da Silva
7. Jumaria Barbosa de Santana
8. Vania Cristina Martins
9. Carolina Conceicao Martins Pereira
10. Adriana Aparecida Costa
In addition, two more players - Muriel Linda Mendoua Abessolo and Francisca Angue Ondo Asangono - were given 10-match bans after being found to have used forged and falsified documents. As well as missing the 2019 Women's World Cup and the following year's Olympics, Equatorial Guinea are also banned from the next two Women's Africa Cup of Nations in 2018 and 2020.
The initial ban from the Olympics, announced in April 2016, came after Fifa found that Camila Maria do Carmo Nobre de Oliveira used forged documents in the preliminary competition of the 2016 games. She was discovered with two passports with different birth dates and two birth certificates showing different parental information.
In 2016, De Oliveira also played in Women's Africa Cup of Nations qualifying against Mali, who later made an official complaint which led to the Confederation of African Football's Nations Cup ban. The two-time continental champions were subsequently disqualified from the 2016 Nations Cup finals in Cameroon (replaced by Mali) as well as the next two tournaments.
