Defender Nikola Tonev, who has spent the past several years in Kazakhstan, has been banned from playing in that country due to a falsified passport.

Nikola Tonev first moved to the Kazakh league in 2009 when he signed for Taraz. He has since played for two more teams in Sunkar and lastly Tobol. Last year, Tonev had plans to obtain a Kazakh passport so he doesn’t count as a foreign player for Tobol. In Kazakhstan, there are limits in the number of foreign players that a team can deploy, so Tonev planned on securing a Kazakh passport to make himself more appealing to Tobol.

However, Tonev’s Kazakh passport proved to be fake. Reports indicated that the photo on the passport was photoshopped. The Ministry of Interior and migration police in Kazakhstan announced that they never received any application from Tonev for him to become a Kazakh citizen. Thus, they concluded that his Kazakh passport was fake.

The Kazakh federation ruled on the matter today and disciplined both Tonev and Tobol. Tonev was banned from ever playing in any Kazakh league again and fined 500,000 Tenge (translates to just over 2,000 Euros). Meanwhile, Tobol was docked 3 points on the league standings and fined 700,000 Tenge.