By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – FIFA and World Cup organisers will be breathing a lot more easily after Cape Verde lost their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over being expelled from World Cup qualifying – in the process avoiding potential chaos next summer.
Cape Verde were kicked out of the final stages of the African qualifying competition for Brazil for fielding an ineligible player in the 2-0 win over Tunisia that in theory put them the top of their group, only for Tunisia to be awarded a 3-0 win which instead sent them into the play-off round.
Cape Verde had paid the penalty for bringing Fernando Varela back too soon for the decisive game against Tunisia despite the Stuaua Bucharest defender not having served a full four-match suspension for a previous red card after being sent off in an earlier group game against Equatorial Guinea, which Cape Verde lost 4-3. That result itself was overturned and the game awarded to Cape Verde after FIFA ruled that Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue, who scored a hat-trick, himself was not eligible to play.
Cape Verde argued that Varela’s red card and subsequent ban should not have counted as the Equatorial Guinea match had been declared void. Had they won on appeal, the entire draw for next summer’s tournament could have been thrown into chaos. FIFA would have faced the nightmare scenario of possible legal action by Tunisia while simultaneously having to organise a rescheduled play-off between Cape Verde and World Cup finalists Cameroon.
But a statement from CAS read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by the Cape Verdean Football Federation (FCF) against the FIFA Appeal Committee (the FIFA AC) decision of 23 September 2013.
“Consequently, the results of the qualifying rounds for the FIFA World Cup 2014 remain unchanged.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734840594labto1734840594ofdlr1734840594owedi1734840594sni@w1734840594ahsra1734840594w.wer1734840594dna1734840594