Both Emilio Nsue and the Equatorial Guinea’s football federation (Feguifut) have filed separate appeals against Fifa’s ruling in May that the 34-year-old has never been eligible to play for the African nation.

There was widespread shock when Fifa stated that Nsue, the top scorer at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, had been playing international football without approval since 2013.

On top of a six-month international ban for the player, who Fifa adjudges to be Spanish, football’s world governing body fined the Equatoguinean federation $164,000 (£127,000) and deducted points from 2026 World Cup qualifiers Nsue had played in.

“Our player and captain Emilio Nsue is an Equatoguinean in his own right,” Venancio Tomas Ndong Micha, Feguifut president, told BBC Sport Africa.

“The federation and population do not understand why we’re going through what we’re going through.

“He has his family here in Equatorial Guinea, the country of his father, and we think we will win our appeal. I hope Fifa will deliver justice.”

In its ruling, Fifa said it was “comfortably satisfied”, external that Nsue was ineligible for “several” internationals, but specifically awarded technical 3-0 wins to Namibia and Liberia.

Both sides had lost World Cup qualifiers 1-0 last November, with Nsue scoring the winner on each occasion.

Equatorial Guinea’s record scorer with 22 goals, Nsue had previously been ruled ineligible by Fifa in 2013 after his first two appearances for the African side, to whom he wished to transfer his allegiance after playing for Spain at youth level.

Fifa did not approve the nationality switch after adjudging that he did not have Equatoguinean nationality when he first played for Spain in 2005, something that was a technical requirement at the time.

Nonetheless, Feguifut started fielding him again in late 2013, with Nsue being a regular fixture in the side ever since, contesting World Cup qualifiers for the 2018, 2022 and now the 2026 finals as well as appearing at three Nations Cups.