CAS Rejects Equatorial Guinea's Appeal Over Points Deduction
Equatorial Guinea's appeal to overturn a points deduction for fielding an ineligible player during two qualifying matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been denied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
In November 2023, the Central African nation secured 1-0 victories against both Namibia and Liberia. However, FIFA later awarded their opponents technical 3-0 wins after ruling that Equatorial Guinea had fielded Emilio Nsue, who scored the decisive goals in both matches.
In a surprising turn of events, FIFA declared in May 2024 that Nsue was ineligible to represent Equatorial Guinea, despite his regular appearances for the national team over the past decade.
FIFA stated it was "comfortably satisfied" that Nsue, who had recently won the golden boot at the Africa Cup of Nations, never received the necessary clearance to formalize his switch from Spain, where he had played at the youth level.
After FIFA officially cleared Nsue to play for Equatorial Guinea in March, the country's football federation (Feguifut) appealed for the return of the six World Cup qualifying points it had forfeited.
This outcome was crucial for Equatorial Guinea's aspirations to qualify for their first World Cup, as it would have elevated them from fifth to second place in Group H, where Tunisia has already secured an automatic berth for the 2026 finals.
However, CAS's ruling means that the second-place position, which could lead to a continental play-off, remains with Namibia. With only two qualifying matches remaining, the Brave Warriors hold 15 points, four points ahead of Liberia, who also benefited from the CAS decision.
Malawi and Equatorial Guinea are both on 10 points, with all four nations still in contention for the second spot in the group. The group stage of Africa's 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign concludes next month, with the winner of November's continental play-offs advancing to a final inter-confederation qualifier in March next year.
Aside from Feguifut's decade-long infringement, CAS ruled that the appeal was inadmissible due to an administrative oversight—specifically, the failure to include the Namibian Football Association (NFA) and the Liberian Football Association (LFA) in the appeal.
FIFA argued that the opinions of both associations needed to be considered, as "their legal interests would be directly affected by any ruling that alters the outcome of the forfeited matches."
CAS concluded that since the appeal was directed solely at FIFA and did not name the NFA and LFA as co-respondents, it must be dismissed. Feguifut contended that this procedural error should not have impacted the case's outcome.
In its arguments, FIFA described its decision to impose only a points deduction against Feguifut as "extremely lenient," suggesting that exclusion from the ongoing World Cup qualifiers could have been warranted.
Nsue was cleared to play for his family's homeland earlier this year after Feguifut demonstrated to FIFA that Equatorial Guinea's constitution grants automatic nationality to anyone born to a parent from the country. The 35-year-old's father is from Equatorial Guinea.
Furthermore, Nsue, who has captained the National Thunder and is the team's all-time leading scorer, held an Equatoguinean passport before representing Spain at youth level in 2005.
Feguifut argued that the 2026 World Cup qualifying points should have been reinstated since Nsue was always eligible to play for Equatorial Guinea, asserting that FIFA's decision to deem him ineligible shortly after his National Thunder debut in 2013 was erroneous.
Nonetheless, Equatorial Guinea violated regulations by fielding Nsue over 40 times before receiving official clearance from FIFA six months ago, and this decision had "no retroactive effect." In the intervening period, Nsue participated in qualifiers for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cup campaigns and played in three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.