CAF President Issa Hayatou admits referee Slim Jedidi, who took control of the AFCON 2013 semifinal between Ghana and Burkina Faso, did not produce the best performance, but says CAF are happy with the officiating overall.
“Everybody saw this referee did not perform well, but the Secretary General has told me the referee wrote a letter to say he was mistaken,” said Hayatou, before touching on the topic of the Jonathan Pitroipa dismissal which would result in the Burkina Faso player missing the final.
“The case will refer to the disciplinary commission to make the decision today (Friday). At this point we cannot comment on what will happen,” added the president.
“But the referee said he recognised his mistake and acknowledges it. Again I say, this matter will be dealt with by the disciplinary commission and the decision will be made today.”
Pitroipa’s Burkina Faso teammates have pleaded with CF to overturn the red card, based on video footage, and allow their star player to be available for the Cup Final.
Nonetheless, despite this acknowledgement of guilt by Jedidi and wide spread criticism of the overall officiating at AFCON 2013, President Hayatou is happy with the officials and their performances.
“On the whole in CAF we are satisfied with African refereeing, for this tournament we experienced some errors, especially the one between Burkina Faso and Ghana.
“We have noticed some deficiencies, but on the whole African refereeing is good and we are satisfied during the tournament,” concluded Hayatou. [MTN Football]
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