ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) — Tiny Cape Verde, the feel-good story of African football this year, was thrown out of the final World Cup qualifying play-offs after FIFA ruled yesterday that the island nation fielded an ineligible player in a decisive qualifying win over Tunisia.

Tunisia, now without a coach after Nabil Maaloul quit and criticised his players following the country’s apparent failure, were instead awarded a 3-0 victory by forfeit and reinstated to Africa’s 10-team play-offs, which will be drawn on Monday and start next month.

Cape Verde ironically benefited from ineligible player sanctions against Equatorial Guinea earlier in qualifying to have the chance to overtake Tunisia, but were found guilty by FIFA’s disciplinary committee of using suspended defender Fernando Varela in their 2-0 win in Rades on Saturday in the decisive final round of group games. That saw the Cape Verdeans move ahead of then-leader Tunisia to win the group.

Africa’s five representatives in Brazil next year will be decided in the play-offs. Cape Verde were looking to reach the World Cup for the first time.

FIFA said Varela was ineligible because he had not fully served a four-game ban for a red card in a qualifier in March, which was also one of two games Cape Verde was awarded 3-0 by FIFA because of Equatorial Guinea’s ineligible player.

Tunisia complained formally to FIFA earlier yesterday over Varela’s participation and the Cape Verdean Football Federation was stripped of the win and its play-off place and fined 6,000 Swiss francs (US$6,447), FIFA said. The federation can appeal the decision.

A country with only half a million people and limited football resources, Cape Verde won over many fans this year after they qualified for the African Cup for the first time in their history and surprised by reaching the quarter-finals before losing to Ghana. However, they became the seventh country in Africa’s beleaguered World Cup qualifying competition to be sanctioned by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player, with Ethiopia, Togo, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Gabon all also forfeiting games.

The disciplinary case against Cape Verde delayed FIFA’s publishing of its latest monthly world rankings by several hours yesterday. The rankings will be used to decide which five African teams are seeded for next week’s play-off draw.