Nigeria are hoping to revive their chances of reaching next year’s World Cup after submitting a complaint to FIFA alleging that the Democratic Republic of Congo fielded ineligible players in last month’s African play-off final.
DR Congo beat the Super Eagles on penalties to book their place in March’s intercontinental qualifier, which will allocate the final two places up for grabs for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
But Nigeria’s claim of “fraud” centres on a group of players who recently switched their international allegiance to their opponents.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) believes players such as Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Axel Tuanzebe, both of whom featured in the game in Morocco, were ineligible because Congolese law does not allow dual citizenship.
But the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa) has rejected the NFF’s challenge.
“We contend that FIFA was deceived into clearing them,” said NFF general secretary Mohammed Sanusi.
“The Congolese rule (law) says you cannot have dual nationality, but some of their players have European and French passports.
“There is what we consider to be a breach of (FIFA’s) regulations. We are saying it was fraudulent.”
The NFF says it has submitted supporting documents and legal arguments to world football’s governing body.
The BBC has contacted FIFA for comment and is waiting to hear back.
Fecofa, however, has branded the petition as an attempt to “win via the back door”.
“The World Cup must be played with dignity and confidence. Not with lawyers’ tricks,” said a post on the Leopards’ official social media, external.
The message also described Nigeria as “bad losers” and dismissed the complaint as poor sportsmanship.
Precedents and possible outcomes
FIFA statutes set out the conditions under which a player may change the national association they represent.
Under these rules, a player may request to change the association they are eligible to represent only once, and the request must be in writing, substantiated, and must be approved by FIFA’s Players’ Status Committee.
While FIFA requires a player to hold a passport for the nation they wish to represent, they may also hold another passport.
But this is not the case under Congolese law.
When a formal protest reaches FIFA, there are several possible outcomes:
- Dismissal: FIFA may find the NFF’s evidence insufficient and close the case, leaving DR Congo’s World Cup qualification intact.
- Investigation and administrative sanction: FIFA could investigate and, if it finds breaches in the clearance process, impose sanctions on the federation (e.g., fines, warnings), but leave the results unchanged.
- Sporting sanctions: In the most serious cases, FIFA or the Confederation of African Football could order a forfeit or award the match to the other side, or deduct points in group-stage contexts. Historically, such sporting sanctions are applied when administrative or player-registration rules are clearly and materially breached, such as with falsification or deliberate misrepresentation.
In a recent example, FIFA deducted six points from Equatorial Guinea during the 2026 World Cup qualifiers after the captain, Emilio Nsue, was found ineligible due to prior appearances for Spain’s youth teams.
While that decision was later reversed, the Equatoguineans never received their points back.
South Africa also saw their victory against Lesotho in the 2026 World Cup qualifying overturned, with Lesotho awarded a 3-0 win for fielding a suspended player.
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