Equatorial Guinea have been banned from participating in the upcoming Total Africa Women Cup of Nations (Awcon) set for November 19 and December 3 in Cameroon.
The two-time continental champions fielded Brazilian-born midfielder Camila Nobre do Carmo Oliviera whose date of birth is 10/06/1988 but was registered as Camila Maria Nobre Carmo with date of birth as 07/10/1994 at the 2014 edition in Namibia.
Camila featured in the two legs against Mali in the last round of qualification with Equatorial Guinea securing qualification to Cameroon following a 3-2 win on aggregate.
The decision was based on Article 43 of the regulations of the competition which states, “If Caf is informed, no matter the source, that a fraud or a forgery was committed by any means and /or support whatsoever by one or more national team(s), an investigation will be opened.”
Equatorial Guinea Football Federation (Feguifut) admitted and said that the Equatorial Guinean Authority responsible for the issuance of passports committed an error by registering a different date of birth and name, and the error was corrected on the new passport of the player issued in September 2015.
According to Caf, the Organizing Committee for Women’s Football concluded that it was the duty of Feguifut to inform the governing body about the changes in the records of the player regarding her registration for Awcon 2014 and 2016.
“Also, the Federation did not ask Caf to modify the data of the player; rather a new registration was done. Consequently, “the participation of player Camila Nobre do Carmo Oliviera with Equatorial Guinea in the two matches against Mali is considered illegal.”
Equatorial Guinea have been suspended for the next two Awcon editions of 2018 and 2020 according to Article 44 which states that, “In case the alleged facts are true, the convicted national association will be suspended from participation in the following two editions of the Women Africa Cup of Nations.”
Consequently, Mali will replace Equatorial Guinea at Awcon 2016 that has attracted seven other countries including the hosts Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe from November 19 to December 3.
Meanwhile, Fifa banned Equatorial Guinea from taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers for fielding Camila who had two passports with different birth dates.
Fifa further fined Feguifut $42,000 and suspended Camila for 10 matches from when she becomes eligible to play and fined her $2,100.
