During the 2000–01 Serie A season, Dida was among multiple players, including Juan Sebastián Verón, Álvaro Recoba, and then-future Milan teammate Cafu, who were implicated in a league scandal involving fraudulent European passports. Dida had joined Milan with a Portuguese passport in order to gain EU status, as Milan had already met their limit on non-EU players at the time with Andriy Shevchenko, Serginho, and Croatian midfielder Zvonimir Boban. However, following a routine check that revealed the document was illegal, Milan promptly re-registered him as a non-EU player. In June 2001, the Italian Football Federation fined the club £314,000 and banned Dida from the league for one year, while FIFA imposed a yearlong ban from international play. Milan loaned him back to Corinthians for the 2001–02 season in accordance with the league suspension. On 3 April 2003, following a court appearance in Milan, Dida was handed a seven-month suspended prison sentence.