A FORMER Premier League footballer has been hit with a bizarre six-month ban by Fifa.
Emilio Nsue helped Middlesbrough to win promotion to the top-flight in 2016 and made four Prem appearances before his exit.
He later starred for Birmingham City and then hit the headlines in January for his country.
The 34-year-old became the first Africa Cup of Nations hat-trick scorer in 16 years - and then helped perform an unforgettable celebration.
Nsue is Equatorial Guinea's record goalscorer with 22 goals in 43 caps and has represented them at three separate editions of the above tournament.
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However, Fifa have now banned the veteran for six months after ruling that he was ineligible to play in their first two 2026 World Cup qualifiers - despite not making the exact reason cleared.
He actually scored the winning goal in both matches, which came against Namibia and Liberia back in November.
But world football’s governing body has now stated that their disciplinary committee was “comfortably satisfied” that the attacker was ineligible for “several” games.
Now they have ruled that both of those World Cup preliminaries will be forfeited with their opponents given 3-0 victories.
The Equatoguinean federation (Feguifut) has also been fined £129,000 with Nsue - who represented Spain at youth level - from playing for any international side for six months.
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A Fifa statement added that all parties had 10 days to request a “motivated decision” with all of the sanctions subject to appeal.
No further details were released by Fifa.
However, BBC say that a Feguifut official informed them that they had not received official notification from Fifa.
It is not the first time that Nsue has suffered issues similar to this.
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Fifa had previously ruled that he was ineligible in 2013 following his first two caps for Equatorial Guinea.
They also came in World Cup qualifiers.
Nsue played for Spain from U16 to U21 level including helping them to win the Under-21 European Championship in 2011.
He currently plays his club football in Spain’s lower leagues for Intercity.