THE referee at the centre of the farcical scenes at the end of the Africa Cup of Nations clash between Tunisia and Mali on Wednesday was suffering from heat stroke and severe dehydration and was taken to hospital after the match, according to the man in charge of officiating at AFCON.
Tunisia have appealed for their Group F opener to be replayed after Zambian official Janny Sikazwe blew the final whistle after just 85 minutes, then again 17 seconds before 90 minutes were up despite viewers expecting a lengthy period of stoppage-time in an incident-packed game, which ended with Mali 1-0 up.
Around 35 minutes after the match was prematurely halted the teams were asked to come back out by AFCON officials, but Tunisia refused as they were already recovering in ice baths, manager Mondher Kebaier revealed.
Now AFCON’s head of referees Essam Abdel-Fatah has defended the performance of Sikazwe –
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