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Both Emilio Nsue and the Equatorial Guinea’s football federation (Feguifut) have filed separate appeals against Fifa\u2019s ruling in May that the 34-year-old has never been eligible to play for the African nation.<\/b><\/p>\n
There was widespread shock when Fifa stated that Nsue, the top scorer at this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations, had been playing international football without approval<\/a> since 2013.<\/p>\n On top of a six-month international ban for the player, who Fifa adjudges to be Spanish, football\u2019s world governing body fined the Equatoguinean federation $164,000 (\u00a3127,000) and deducted points from 2026 World Cup qualifiers Nsue had played in.<\/p>\n \u201cOur player and captain Emilio Nsue is an Equatoguinean in his own right,\u201d Venancio Tomas Ndong Micha, Feguifut president, told BBC Sport Africa. <\/p>\n \u201cThe federation and population do not understand why we\u2019re going through what we\u2019re going through.<\/p>\n \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n