By Osasu Obayiuwana at the CAF Congress in Marrakech
March 8 – Slim Jdidi, the Tunisian referee at the centre of the controversial 2013 Africa Cup of Nations semi-final between Ghana and Burkina Faso is unlikely to receive further sanctions from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the continent’s governing body.
“This referee will not be handling any matches for now,” says Tarek Bouchamaoui, the chairman of CAF’s Referees Commission, who also comes from Tunisia.
“But we are not going to crucify him. Referees have a bad day, you have a bad day too, everyone has a bad day at times,” he said.
Jdidi’s series of inexplicable calls against Burkina Faso, the eventual runner-up, including the sending off of Jonathan Pitroipa (pictured) – who was supposed to have been awarded a penalty – provoked outrage from neutrals, which forced CAF to overturn the unfair decision.
It permitted Pitroipa, subsequently named the player of the tournament, to feature in the final against Nigeria, which Burkina Faso lost 1-0.
“There is no doubt that he performed poorly in that match and he himself wrote us, to admit that he made a series of poor decisions,” Bouchamaoui said.
The quality and integrity of refereeing in African football has been a matter of concern for several years, which even Bouchamaoui admits has been a burning issue.
“There is no question that corruption in refereeing has been a problem in the past. But we have been doing our best in CAF to end it and I think that we are doing a good job of doing so.”
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