Burkina Faso and Gabon docked points for ineligible players

On 2 June 2012, Burkina Faso played to a 0-0 draw at home to Congo.  On 3 June 2012, Niger played to a 0-0 draw at home to Gabon.  According to FIFA's rulings handed down in the past week, those two matches have been awarded as 3-0 victories to Congo and Gabon.

FIFA apparently think they are now bigger than the game they govern.  CAF had cleared the two players deemed ineligible by FIFA for action at the 2012 African Cup of Nations.  The Gabonese player Charly Moussono had featured in four competitive matches during that tournament, and the Burkinabe player Herve Zengue also featured in the tournament during qualifying.  Moussono (pictured, right) had appeared at a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2006 for Cameroon.  Zengue (pictured, left) is Cameroonian by birth and Burkinabe by marriage.

The two teams have until mid-January 2013 to appeal the stupid suspensions.  Hopefully, an arbitration panel will overturn these technicality-induced penalties and restore competitive balance in CAF Group E.  Gabon and Niger surely thought that clearance from CAF and no previous FIFA intervention meant that their players were eligible, but FIFA claim that they did not have governing control over the 2012 African Cup of Nations.  The arbitration panel selected is hopefully intelligent enough to see right through that pathetic claim.

The current group standings pending the appeal are given below.

Congo 6 pts
Niger 3 pts +2
Gabon 3 pts -2
Burkina Faso 0 pts -4

News Reports:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20782436
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1975992/index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20816001