FAZ makes official complaint against ref El Jaafari

Friday Oct 08, 2021. 14:00

The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has filed an official complaint with FIFA over referee Noureddine El Jaafari’s handling of Thursday’s 2-0 away FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group B qualifier loss to Equatorial Guinea in Malabo.

The Moroccan referee sent-off Chipolopolo midfielder Prince Mumba in the 25th minute for stomping on Basilo Ndong.

Furthermore, protests from Zambian players over some infringements particularly on striker Patson Daka went ignored.

“Football is about fairplay but what we saw today (Thursday) was completely outside normal football that we all subscribe to,” FAZ president Andrew Kamanga told players and officials in Malabo after the game on Thursday evening before their departure for Lusaka on a chartered flight.

“For the record, we wish to confirm that at halftime we went to see the match commissioner and we actually played the second half under protest, so that too was recorded.

“So even after the second half, we still went back and filed a formal complaint.

“All because we believe that football should be won fairly on the pitch but what we witnessed today was nowhere near there.”

Three other Chipolopolo players received yellow cards including midfielder Dickson Chapa who is now ruled out of the Group B final leg match against Equatorial Guinea in Lusaka this Sunday after accruing his second caution of the qualifiers.

Meanwhile, with three Group B matches to go, third placed Chipolopolo have now suffered successive defeats.

Chipolopolo has 3 points from three games played and are six points behind leaders Tunisia who beat them 2-0 on September 7.

Second placed Equatorial Guinea has 6 points while Mauritania is bottom of Group B on zero points.

“We know that we needed to put in our best but unfortunately we didn’t see our best but life goes on and we look forward to the next game on Sunday,” Kamanga said.

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