Rwanda has been confirmed out of the 2015 Africa Nations Cup qualifiers after losing an appeal in the case of Daddy Biroli/Tady Etekiama who has two identities.
This was revealed on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) website www.cafonline.com in a communication on Sunday August 31 thus confirming Congo as through to the group stages of the 2015 Orange AFCON qualifiers.
Rwanda was disqualified from the competition after fielding Daddy Biroli whose other identity is Tady Etekiama at DR Congo club AS Vita in their 2-0 loss to Cong in their first leg of the final pre-group qualifier.
It was established that the player Dady Birori, playing with the national team of Rwanda was the same that played in the Champions League with the club AS Vita using the name Etekiama Agiti Tady a decision Ferwafa took as harsh and appealed the ruling insisting they were not responsible for player’s change of identity whatsoever.
However, CAF upheld the decision despite an appeal saying Ferwafa had knowledge of this before fielding the player.
“Based on the documents on record, it was evident that the Rwandan federation was aware of this double identity but proceeded to feature the player for the national team while he held a different identity with the club,” CAF stated.
“This decision was taken following the Appeals Board hearing of 27 August, 2014 in Cairo, Egypt which upheld the decision of August 17 of the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations which disqualified Rwanda based on Article 41 of the AFCON regulations,” read part of the statement.
“The regulation states that any team that has committed fraud on the identity of a player for qualification and/or involved a suspended player will lose the match and shall be eliminated from the competition by decision of the organizing committee who would decide on such matters with facts clearly established.”
The Appeals Board stated in their ruling; “This decision was taken following the Appeals Board hearing of 27 August, 2014 in Cairo, Egypt which upheld the decision of August 17 of the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations which disqualified Rwanda based on Article 41 of the AFCON regulations.
The regulation states that any team that has committed fraud on the identity of a player for qualification and/or involved a suspended player, will lose the match and shall be eliminated from the competition by decision of the organizing committee who would decide on such matters with facts clearly established.”
Congo is therefore qualified for the last phase of qualification for the Orange AFCON Morocco 2015 and will compete in Group A against Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan in place of Rwanda.