CAF Disciplinary Board v. Fédération Gabonaise de Football (FEGAFOOT)

Following Gabon's 7-6 penalty shootout win over Cameroon on 25 March 2023 in Franceville, which sent Gabon's U23 side to the 2023 U23 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the Cameroonian Football Association (FECAFOOT) — headed by Samuel Eto'o — lodged a complaint disputing forward Floriss Djave's eligibility, alleging he was actually born in 1997, not 2003, making him 25 rather than 19, and that his real surname was Ndjave.

The CAF Disciplinary Board's ruling of 17 May 2023 did not, in fact, find that Djave's age had been falsified. On the contrary, the Board explicitly stated that, based on the birth certificate and passport FEGAFOOT supplied, Djave was genuinely born on 29 July 2003, and found Cameroon's fraud allegation to be without merit. What the Board did find was a separate, narrower problem: on match sheets from earlier, unrelated continental club fixtures involving Djave's former club, Bouenguidi Sports (against Forest Rangers, TP Mazembe, and Salitas), his birth date had been recorded as 15 November 1997 — apparently the result of his details being swapped with a teammate's, Lariva Moussounda, when entered into CAF's registration system. Under Article 44 of the CAN U23 regulations, any administrative registration error of this kind — regardless of whether the player was actually eligible — automatically triggers elimination of the team from the tournament in progress and suspension of the federation from the following edition. On that strict basis, not a finding of fraud, the Board eliminated Gabon from the 2023 tournament and suspended FEGAFOOT from the next edition, with Cameroon set to take Gabon's place in Morocco.

FEGAFOOT appealed, and the CAF Appeal Jury, meeting in Cairo on 7 June 2023, overturned the Disciplinary Board's decision after reviewing further documentation FEGAFOOT submitted, including Djave's passport, a 2020 medical certificate, his current QR-coded federation licence, and Moussounda's own passport. Gabon was reinstated to the tournament, competing in Morocco from 24 June to 8 July 2023 — at Cameroon's expense, since Cameroon was excluded once Gabon's place was restored.

The case is a clear illustration that a CAF Disciplinary Board ruling eliminating a team is not necessarily the final word, and that a technical registration error, even one CAF's own tribunal expressly distinguishes from actual fraud, can nonetheless trigger the tournament's most severe sanction at first instance under a strict-liability rule — one that a fuller evidentiary record on appeal can still overturn.