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The World Cup ended in July, but backlash from the tournament is continuing to hit FIFA in October.
On Tuesday, The New York Times and Le Monde reported FIFA allowed the goalkeeper for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lionel Mpasi, to compete in the World Cup despite finding him ineligible months before the tournament.
After DR Congo beat Nigeria in World Cup qualifiers last November, the Nigeria Football Federation lodged a wide-ranging complaint with FIFA about DR Congo fielding ineligible players. FIFA then found DR Congo had not done the proper work to allow Mpasi to switch his allegiance from France, where he played at the youth level, the reports say. (Mpasi was born in France and made his DR Congo debut in 2022.)
Mpasi and DR Congo went on to beat Jamaica in a March qualifier to secure its spot in the World Cup, where the team quickly made waves.
DR Congo drew 1–1 with Portugal, lost 1–0 to Colombia, and beat Uzbekistan 3–1, to advance to a round-of-32 matchup against England. Mpasi was an impenetrable wall for most of the match before two late goals from Harry Kane delivered England a 2–1 win.
FIFA did not respond to a request for comment, but told The Times that its “autonomous” committees “decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them,” without the weigh-in of FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Some have raised concerns that Infantino has a close relationship with the now-president of DR Congo’s soccer federation, Véron Mosengo-Omba. He ran unopposed for his role in May, after FIFA had cleared Mpasi to play. Mosengo-Omba went to college with Infantino in Switzerland and recently said he is “ready to take a bullet” for him.
The Mpasi news reignites complaints about Infantino’s FIFA. In late July, Infantino tried to push a plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors called FIFA Forward Enterprise, which drew intense backlash and was quickly called off. The weeks that followed featured intense global pressure to replace Infantino as the organization’s president.
However, still no candidate has emerged to run against Infantino in March’s presidential election, with the deadline to announce approaching in November.
Also on Tuesday, Norway’s football federation, Norges Fotballforbund (NFF), announced that it has made two separate filings to FIFA committees concerning three issues: the FIFA Peace Prize Infantino awarded Trump, the Folarin Balogun red card case, and FFE. The NFF is calling for an investigation into whether Infantino and others broke FIFA’s ethics code, and if any of FIFA’s governance measures have not been followed.
“The purpose of these filings is straightforward: to establish the facts and ensure accountability under FIFA’s own rules,” said NFF president Lisa Klaveness, a longtime critic of Infantino.
Response to DR Congo News
An unnamed Nigerian National Sports Commission official told ESPN that Nigeria is “exploring all our options as a country and nothing is off the table.”
“Nothing has been decided yet, but we will seriously consider seeking compensation from FIFA for all of the economic losses this has cost Nigeria,” the official said. The full leadership of the Nigerian soccer federation resigned in August amid the fallout from the team missing the World Cup.
The continental soccer body which includes Jamaica, CONCACAF, said in a statement: “Any concerns regarding player eligibility, particularly those that may affect the integrity of a competition or the interests of one of our member associations, need to be thoroughly reviewed and addressed.”
The Jamaican federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Front Office Sports.
