Referee Banned For Six Months After Afcon Controversy
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has banned referee Seechum Rajindrapasard for six months after poor performance at the on-going Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
At an extraordinary meeting held in Bata, Equatorial Guinea on Monday night, CAF’s Referees Committee noted that the referee from Mauritius performed poorly while handling the quarter game between Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea played on January 31st.
The referee awarded a controversial penalty which enabled the hosts equalize through a late penalty before they netted another through a free kick to win 2-1.
The Referees Committee noted with regret the poor performance of the referee during the match, including an unacceptable failure to maintain calm and ensure proper control of the players during the match. The committee decided to end Rajindrapasard’s show at the Afcon event, suspend him for six months for poor performance and also de-list him from the CAF “A” Elite Referees panel.
The Disciplinary Board also said they noted incidents of pitch invasion by fans, the aggressive attitude of some supporters in the stands, invading of the pitch after the final whistle by players and substitutes of the Tunisian team, insulting the referee of the match and trying to physically assault him, the regrettable behavior of the president of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF), Wadie Jary entering the field of play and strongly criticizing the referee and CAFand vandalism by some Tunisian players.
The disciplinary board imposed a fine of shs136 million (US$50,000) on the Tunisian FA, and asked the Equatorial Guinean party to estimate the cost of repairing the damage which the Tunisian FA will pay.
The Board also instructed the Tunisian FA to send to CAF before February 5th at midnight, a letter of apology for the insinuations of bias and lack of ethics against CAF and its officials or to present irrefutable evidence to substantiate the accusations of the FTF.
CAF said should the Tunisian FA fail to send the apology letter or required evidence before the stated deadline, the disciplinary panel would suggest to the Executive Committee of CAF additional sanctions, including the possibility not to accept the participation of the national team of Tunisia in the next edition of the Afcon 2017.
The Equatorial Guinean FA was also fined UGX13,700,000 (US$5,000) for pitch invasion by their fans.
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