Cape Verde thrown out of World Cup playoffs
Cape Verde was thrown out of Africa's final World Cup playoffs for fielding an an ineligible player.
ZURICH (AP) - Cape Verde was thrown out of Africa s final World Cup playoffs after FIFA ruled Thursday that the tiny island nation fielded an ineligible player in a decisive qualifying win over Tunisia.
Tunisia was instead awarded a 3-0 victory by forfeit and reinstated to Africa s 10-team playoffs, which will be drawn on Monday and start next month.
Cape Verde, which ironically benefited from an ineligible player sanction against Equatorial Guinea earlier in group qualifying to have the chance to overtake Tunisia, was found guilty by FIFA s disciplinary committee of playing suspended defender Fernando Varela in its 2-0 win in Rades on Saturday.
That saw the Cape Verdeans move ahead of then-leader Tunisia to win the group.
Africa s five representatives in Brazil next year will be decided in the playoffs.
FIFA said Thursday that Varela was ineligible because he had not fully served a four-game ban for a red card in a qualifier in March, which was also the game Cape Verde was awarded by FIFA because of Equatorial Guinea s ineligible player.
Tunisia complained formally to FIFA over Varela s participation and the Cape Verdean Football Federation was stripped of the win and its playoff place and fined 6,000 Swiss francs ($6,447), FIFA said. The federation can appeal the decision.
Cape Verde, a country with only half a million people, was the feel-good story of African football this year after it qualified for the African Cup for the first time in its history and surprised many by reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Ghana.
However, it became the seventh country in Africa s beleaguered World Cup qualifying competition to be sanctioned by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player, with Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Togo, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Gabon all also forfeiting games.
The disciplinary case against Cape Verde delayed FIFA s publishing of its latest monthly world rankings, which had been expected earlier Thursday and will be used to decide which five African teams are seeded for next week s playoff draw.
Tunisia will now join Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria and Nigeria as the five seeded teams in the draw. Egypt, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Ethiopia will be unseeded.
