World Cup 2026 qualifying: Equatorial Guinea fail in appeal against forfeits

Quite aside from Fefuifut’s decade-long infringement, Cas ruled that its appeal was inadmissible in any case because of an administrative issue – in that it had failed to include the Namibian FA (NFA) and Liberian FA (LFA) in the appeal.

Fifa had argued that the views of both FAs needed to be heard as “their legal interests would be directly affected by any ruling that alters the outcome of the forfeited matches”.

“Since the appeal is directed solely at Fifa and does not name the NFA and LFA as co-respondents, the [Cas] panel concludes that the appeal must be dismissed,” the Cas ruling, which is dated 28 July but which has only recently come to light, stated.

Feguifut had argued in vain that this procedural oversight should not have affected the outcome of the case.

In its arguments to Cas, Fifa ventured its decision to only sanction Feguifut by forfeiting points against Namibia and Liberia was “extremely lenient” as it “could have imposed the exclusion from the ongoing World Cup qualifiers”.

Nsue was cleared to play for his family’s homeland earlier this year after Feguifut proved to Fifa that Equatorial Guinea’s constitution states that anyone born to a mother or father from the country is automatically an Equatoguinean upon birth.

The 35-year-old’s father is from Equatorial Guinea.

Moreover, the former Middlesbrough and Birmingham City player – who has not just captained the National Thunder but also become the team’s record goalscorer – bore the country’s passport before he played youth internationals for Spain for the first time in 2005.

Feguifut thus contended that the 2026 World Cup qualifying points should have been returned since Nsue had always been eligible to play for Equatorial Guinea, and that Fifa’s decision to rule him ineligible shortly after his National Thunder debut in 2013 was wrong.

Nonetheless, the country flouted regulations by fielding the forward on over 40 occasions prior to receiving official clearance from Fifa for him to play six months ago, with the decision having “no retroactive effect”.

In between this decision and the original Fifa verdict of 2013, Nsue had played in qualifiers for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cup campaigns, which are run by football’s world governing body, and played at three separate Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.