U-23 AFCON: Egypt protest to CAF as coach blames referee

Nifemi Daniel

Following the 2-2 draw with Nigeria on Wednesday, the Egypt Football Association has confirmed they will file a complaint against Antoine Essouma, the referee who arbitrated the match in the U-23 African Cup of Nations in Senegal.

Egypt made a great comeback against the U-23 Eagles, rebounding from a 2-0 loss in the first half to a 2-2 draw and even being close to snatching the winning goal. But the game contained much controversial calls, with the two penalties given to Nigeria being the climax of events.

Egyptian FA board member, Hamada Al Masry, said that they will complain against the Cameroonian referee due to his “wrong decisions” during the encounter.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s manager, Hossam El-Badry, blamed the referee’s decisions for 2-2 draw against Nigeria.

“We went through a healing process after the game and we are now concentrating on our final group game against Mali which is very critical to our position in the group,” the 55-year-old coach said after the match.

“The scenario we faced in this game was a very weird one because of the poor decisions from the referee. We want fair judgement. We were always in praise of African referees and then these things happen and they take us back to step one again,” El-Badry added.

Egypt drew the first game of the group stages against Algeria 1-1 and now sit in 3rd place with two points from two game and will face Mali, who sit in 4th with zero points from two games on Saturday, 5 December, 2015.

Egypt must grab a win to have a chance to qualify to the next round of the 2015 U-23 African Cup of Nations, and 2016 Summer Olympics which are to be held at Rio de Janeiro.

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