FIFA has suspended the top scorer of last year's Africa Cup of Nations from football. What is it?

Equatorial Guinea defender Emilio Nsue was the top scorer at last year's Africa Cup of Nations, but not even six months after the tournament he received a six-month suspension from international football.

The verdict of FIFA, which handed down this punishment, has already been published and we can familiarise ourselves with the decision of the body. Thus, it is reported that the Equatorial Guinea national team violated the procedure of changing the football nationality of the defender, because at youth level he played for Spanish teams.

The FIFA referees wrote in their judgement that he "apparently obtained the citizenship of Equatorial Guinea (March 2013) after playing in his first international match in official competition" for the Spanish national team.

The local side had already approached FIFA in 2013 about changing Nsue's citizenship but were denied. The national team fielded the defender for two 2014 World Cup qualifying matches anyway, causing the international federation to penalise Equatorial Guinea with a 0-3 technical defeat.

Despite these matches, he continued to play for the national team, including the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, but then FIFA overlooked this and did not penalise Equatorial Guinea. Why remains unclear.

Nsue himself for the national team of the African country for 11 years played 42 matches and scored 23 goals. At the club level, he represents the Spanish third division team Intercity.