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Nigeria are hoping to revive their chances of reaching next year’s World Cup after submitting a complaint to Fifa which alleges that the Democratic Republic of Congo fielded ineligible players in last month’s African play-off final.<\/b><\/p>\n
DR Congo beat the Super Eagles on penalties<\/a> to book their place in March’s intercontinental qualifier, which will allocate the final two places up for grabs for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n But Nigeria’s claim of “fraud” centres on a group of players who recently switched their international allegiance to their opponents.<\/p>\n The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) believes players such as Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Axel Tuanzebe, both of whom featured in the game in Morocco, were ineligible because Congolese law does not allow dual citizenship.<\/p>\n But the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa) has rejected the NFF’s challenge.<\/p>\n “Our contention is that Fifa was deceived into clearing them,” said NFF general secretary Mohammed Sanusi.<\/p>\n “The Congolese rule (law) says you cannot have dual nationality, but some of their players have European and French passports.<\/p>\n “There is what we consider to be a breach of (Fifa’s) regulations. We are saying it was fraudulent.”<\/p>\n The NFF says it has submitted supporting documents and legal arguments to world football’s governing body.<\/p>\n The BBC has contacted Fifa for comment and is waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n Fecofa, however, has branded the petition as an attempt to “win via the back door”.<\/p>\n “The World Cup must be played with dignity and confidence. Not with lawyers’ tricks,” said a post on the Leopards’ official social media, external<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n The message also described Nigeria as “bad losers” and dismissed the complaint as poor sportsmanship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n