By Mark Baber
April 2 – An apology from the Tunisia Football Federation for accusing the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of bias has prevented the nation from being banned from the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The apology follows the disgraceful scenes which met the team’s elimination in the quarter-final of the African Cup of Nations by Equatorial Guinea.
CAF’s Jury of Appeal issued a statement on Monday recognising the “great dignity” of the Tunisian Football Federation before the Appeal Board on March 13 and the formal apology which was delivered by the Tunisian 1st Vice President, Maher Snoussi.
The Tunisian Federation had been ordered to either apologise of substantiate its claims of CAF bias against the Tunisian team or face exclusion from the 2017 qualifying. Tunisia initially refused to do so and lodged a grievance with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which they have now agreed to withdraw.
The decision of the Referees Committee to suspend the match referee for six months, based on his poor performance in the match and to delist him from the CAF “A” Elite Referees panel remains in force. Tunisia had complained about a penalty being wrongly awarded against their team late in injury time, allowing Equatorial Guinea to draw level and subsequently win in extra time. However, the suspension is for losing control of the match and players.
According to CAF, incidents in the game included “a 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), Mr. Wadie Jary, entering the field of play and strongly criticizing the referee and CAF; and vandalism by some Tunisian players which included breaking of a door in the locker room area and a fridge.”
Tunisia had written to CAF suggesting “that CAF and its officials were questionable and biased against Tunisia in general and that CAF, its officials and committees were devoid of sporting ethics, causing in a premeditated manner the elimination of Tunisia from the Orange AFCON 2015.”
Whilst Tunisian supporters were clearly right to be aggrieved at a poor refereeing decision which lost them the chance to proceed to the semi-finals of the tournament, the reaction was clearly unacceptable and the fine of $50,000 for what CAF describes as the “insolent, aggressive and unacceptable behavior of the players and officials of the Tunisian team during the aforementioned game” remains in place.
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