Sao Tome and Principe kicked out of African Cup qualifiers over missing COVID certificate

Published on: 17 May 2022

Sao Tome and Principe was thrown out of the African Cup of Nations qualifying tournament for breaching COVID-19 protocols in a preliminary tie against Mauritius in March.

Sao Tome and Principe fielded a player in the two-leg tie who hadn't submitted to a compulsory pre-match COVID-19 test or provided proof of a recent test, the Confederation of African Football said.

That constituted a breach of CAF's medical rules. Sao Tome and Principe won the tie 4-3 on aggregate.

“The Caf Disciplinary Board found Sao Tome e Principe Football Federation guilty of fielding an ineligible player for the said match and imposed a forfeit of the match played against Mauritius,” CAF said in a statement on Monday.

“Furthermore, the Disciplinary Board has also imposed a fine of $10 000 against the Sao Tome and Principe Football Federation.”

Mauritius was awarded Sao Tome and Principe's place in the main qualifying stage for the 2023 African Cup in Ivory Coast and will go into a group containing former champion Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.

Those qualifiers start at the end of this month.

Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island better known for being a luxury holiday destination, has qualified for the African Cup only once before, in 1974. It lost all three of its games.

The Sao Tome and Principe federation was fined $10,000 for fielding the ineligible player, who wasn't named.

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