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Cape Verde loses WCup playoff spot; Tunisia in
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The fairytale progress of tiny Cape Verde to the last round of African World Cup qualifiers turned into a nightmare yesterday when FIFA found the islanders guilty of fielding an ineligible player and turfed them out of the competition.
Their place in the final round playoffs will be taken by Tunisia, which the Cape Verdians had sensationally eliminated at the weekend to win their group with a shock 2-0 win in Tunis.
Tunisia coach Nabil Maaloul quit in the wake of the embarrassing setback.
Because Cape Verde fielded defender Fernando Varela, who should have sat out the match after being sent off in a qualifier in March, the match has been forfeited and awarded 3-0 in favor of Tunisia, FIFA said in a statement.
It means Tunisia finishes top of Group B and will play in the final round of the qualifiers next month and in November. The 10 group winners go into a draw on Monday to determine the pairings for the five playoff matches from which the winners will go to Brazil next year.
The Cape Verde has also been fined 6000 Swiss francs (US$6,400) after a meeting of the FIFA disciplinary committee.
Bizarre sequence
The latest administrative mix-up continues a bizarre sequence of similar failings that have already seen Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Sudan and Togo all sanctioned for using ineligible players during the 2014 qualifiers.
Cape Verde had ironically gained six points from its two group matches against Equatorial Guinea by similar sanction, which put it back in contention to win the group after Tunisia had in June seemingly sewn up top place. Varela should have been serving a four-match suspension after being sent off for unsporting conduct towards a match official during the match against Equatorial Guinea in March.
Cape Verde, which had already produced giantkilling results earlier this year in reaching the African Cup of Nations quarterfinals, caused another big shock with a win last Saturday to usurp Tunisia in the standings.
Cape Verde, with a population of just half a million, has never qualified for a World Cup. Its football association can appeal.
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