Sports

AFCON 2021: CAF confirms final decision over replaying Mali vs Tunisia

Published

3 years ago

January 14, 2022

Mali’s 1-0 win over Tunisia at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will stand, despite referee Janny Sikazwe causing controversy by twice blowing the final whistle too early..

The AFCON’s organizing committee met on Thursday in Cameroon to ratify Mali’s victory.

While the game restarted on Wednesday after Sikazwe prematurely ended it after 85 minutes, he then blew full time when the game reached 89 minutes and 47 seconds.

About three minutes of injury time had been expected.

About 30 minutes later, the officials tried to complete the remaining minutes in Limbe, Cameroon on Wednesday.

But Tunisia refused to come back out to restart the match, with the coach saying his players were already in their ice baths by then.

“After examining the protest of Tunisia and all the match officials report, the organizing committee decided … to dismiss the protest lodged by the Tunisian team. To homologate the match result as 1-0 in favor of Mali,” the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in a statement.