Johannesburg – The controversial match between Tunisia and Mali has been a prime highlight of the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) this week.
Tensions were high in the group stage encounter, when Tunisia’s technical team and players, experienced a loss of their opener against Mali on Wednesday after the match official created a ‘whistle-fiasco’ during this encounter.
It has been dubbed one of the most controversial games in history after the Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe’s called off the match on two occasions before the clock ticked over to 90 minutes of play.
Following this scenery, Tunisia launched an appeal to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), demanding their Afcon game against Mali to be replayed.
However, Tunisia has been unsuccessful in their bid to replay their match after their appeal was rejected by the tournament’s organisers.
The tournament’s organising committee engaged in a deadlock meeting on Thursday to unpack the controversial match and review Tunisia’s plea, then the committee decided to dismiss the complaint lodged by Tunisia.
‘The organising committee has decided to dismiss the protest lodged by the Tunisian team. To homologate the match result as 1-0 in favour of Mali,’ a statement from CAF read.
On Thursday, it was revealed that the referee during the match was suffering from heatstroke and severe dehydration and was taken to hospital after the match.
Afcon’s head of referees Essam Abdel-Fatah insisted that the match official was suffering from the effects of the 34-degree heat level and 65 percent humidity in Limbe, Cameroon.
“The referee suffered from heatstroke and very severe dehydration, which led to him losing focus and was taken to the hospital,” Abdel-Fatah told MBC Egypt’s Al-Laib.
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