The Tunisian national team appealed, after the match against Mali in the African Cup of Nations ended in much controversy. His rematch request was rejected.
The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations Group F match between Tunisia vs Mali is in the spotlight. The match at Stade Limbe on Wednesday (12/1/2022) local time showed a lot of controversial decisions from referee Janny Sikazwe.
Among his many decisions, the most fatal was twice stopping the fight before normal time ran out. Sikazwe had blown the long whistle in the 85th minute and 89th minute 45 seconds. Sikazwe also did not give added time despite the many events in the second half of the match.
As a result, Tunisia thrashed after the match, because they felt they still had time to catch up 0-1. The coach and team officials raged on the edge of the field, but the referee ignored it.
Tunisia hopes that the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to replay the game. However, after holding a meeting with the organizing committee on Thursday (13/1), CAF decided that the match would not be held again.
This means that Mali is declared to still win and Tunisia lose 0-1.
“The organizing committee has decided to ignore the protests raised by the Tunisian team. To equalize the result of the match with the score 1-0 for Mali,” CAF said in a statement.
Sikazwe himself apparently had asked for the match to be continued, 40 minutes after the match ended. Mali’s players then returned to the field, but Tunisia refused because the players had already soaked in ice for recovery.
Tunisian coach, Mondher Kebaier, assessed the figure of the referee to be one of the reasons he refused to continue the match. He called the judge so detrimental to his team.
“It’s a difficult situation to deal with. The referee also blew the long whistle five minutes before time ran out in the first half. Then he blew it again in the 89th minute of the second half,” he said.
“His decision is inexplicable. I don’t understand how he made such a decision. We’ll see what happens,” he said.
“He blew the whistle and asked us to go back to the dressing room. The player was soaking in ice when he asked us out. In 30 years in football, I have never seen a case like this,” he said.
(then / aff)
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