World football governing body FIFA have fined the Nigeria Football Federation 6,000 Swiss Francs (approximately N2,175,660.00) for fielding an ineligible player in the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying match between Algeria and Nigeria on 10 November, 2017, Completesportsnigeria.com reports.
Nigeria fielded Shehu Abdullahi for the game and according to FIFA, the three-time African champions violated article 8 of the Regulations of the 2018 World Cup Russia and article 55 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code for featuring the Anorthosis Famagusta defender, who was ineligible for the encounter on 10 November 2017.
According to a statement on the official website of FIFA, Shehu failed to serve the automatic one-match suspension imposed on him as a result of receiving a caution in two separate matches of the same competition.
Nigeria will forfeit the point gained from the encounter with three points and three goals awarded in favour of Algeria.
However, this sanction bears no impact on the final result of the preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup since Nigeria had already qualified (and Algeria eliminated) before the match was played.
With the deducted point, the Super Eagles finished the Russia 2018 qualifying campaign with 13 points instead of 14 and can no longer be considered unbeaten.
