After the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations was caught in disarray on Wednesday, Tunisia could be thrown out of the competition after refusing to come back on the pitch for their match against Mali.
Africa’s fourth highest-ranked nation found themselves 1-0 down in the 85th of their match against Mali when match official Janny Sikazwe blew his final whistle for a first time.
However, he realised his mistake and the match continued, only for Sikazwe to blow his whistle for a second time when the clock showed 89 minutes and 47 seconds, leading to massive protests from the Tunisian side after a second half that was interrupted by two VAR reviews, a drinks break and several substitutions.
However, 20 minutes later, in the middle of the post-match press conferences, CAF officials ordered the game to be played for a further three minutes under the guidance of fourth official Helder Martins Rodrigues and while Mali returned to the pitch, Tunisia did not.
As a consequence, Mali were awarded the victory, but CAF will have questions to answer over the farcial ending of the match.
“It is a difficult situation to deal with. The referee also blew with five minutes left in the first half and then he blew after 89 minutes, denying us practically seven or eight minutes of added time,” Tunisia coach Monher Kebaier, whose team had an extra man at the end after Mali’s El Bilal Toure was sent off, said in his post-match press conference, as cited by BBC Sport Africa.
“His decision is inexplicable. I can’t understand how he made his decision and we will see what happens now.”
The post-match press conference of Mali’s Mohamed Magassouba was interrupted by tournament organisers, who ordered the match to continue.
“We were told to go back on the pitch because the game was not finished,” he said.
“Unfortunately the opposition team did not want to come back out and the final whistle was blown.”
There have since been claims that referee Sikazwe suffered from a heat stroke, which could could explain his controversial officiating.
While CAF are yet to comment on the chaos, their rule book states that a team which “leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorisation of the referee, it shall be considered looser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition”.
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