FIFA judges decided that Emilio Nsue, who finished as a top goalscorer in the African Cup of Nations five months ago, was not qualified to represent Equatorial Guinea during his eleven-year international career.
FIFA has released a comprehensive decision outlining the reasons behind the disciplinary committee’s decision to remove Equatorial Guinea’s two victories from their November 2026 World Cup qualifying matches last month.
The 34-year-old Nsue scored in 1-0 victories over Namibia and Liberia in both contests; however, he never received official FIFA approval to move from Spain to Equatorial Guinea. Nsue participated in an Under-21 European Championship while representing age-group teams from Spain.
FIFA has banned him from national team matches for six months. A repeat ruling of FIFA’s 2013 disciplinary verdicts also mandated that Equatorial Guinea forfeit its two World Cup qualifying matches as 3-0 losses due to Nsue’s ineligibility.
In the most recent investigation, FIFA said that its disciplinary judges verified the rationale based on the cases about the 2013 games.
The FIFA judges noted in their ruling that Nsue “apparently only acquired the Equatoguinean nationality (March 2013) after having played in his first international match in an official competition” with Spain.
In actuality, the player had participated in 26 games for Spanish teams in six years, from under-16 to under-21, including championship tournaments.
During the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, Nsue participated in three games for Spain. He also once replaced Juan Mata as a late substitute in a game at the Under-21 Euro in 2011. Spain won that European title in Denmark.
The 15-page FIFA document, dated May 10, described in detail what appeared to have been a disorganized process for the Equatoguinean Federation attempting to get Nsue approved ten years prior.
Nsue was chosen and started in two World Cup qualifying matches by the federation in 2013 after it requested his release from Spanish authorities—but not FIFA. This was done without even formally requesting permission. Those games were later defaulted as 3-0 losses.
The request for Nsue to modify her eligibility was turned down by FIFA in December 2013, with the excuse of her newly acquired nationality. Yet he continued to play for the Equatorial Guinea team.
Nsue “still took part in a substantial number of matches for the (men’s senior) representative team of the FEGUIFOOT over a significant period of time, while undoubtedly knowing that he was ineligible,” the FIFA judges wrote.
He played in World Cup qualifying games for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments despite those disciplinary cases and defaulted games from the 2014 edition. It is unclear why FIFA did not prosecute those games.
Despite having previously been disqualified from the qualifying program due to an ineligible player, Nsue also participated in the 2015 African Cup of Nations, which Equatorial Guinea hosted as a replacement host. The Confederation of African Football, which organized the 2022 AFCON independently of FIFA, was where he also participated.
Nsue has played more than 40 national team games and scored 23 goals, including five in January at the most recent AFCON. The publicity he received in Ivory Coast seemed to have provoked a renewed disciplinary case.
The latest investigation was opened by FIFA in March, and Nsue was contacted with a six-day deadline to respond to the pending charge.
“No position was received from the respondent,” FIFA judges wrote.
The judges also explained they took action only against Nsue’s 2026 World Cup games because that is a currently active competition.
Nsue, who currently plays for the Intercity team in lower-tier Spain, along with his national federation, have the option to file an appeal against the sanctions with FIFA and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
