The Ghanaian referee who gifted Bafana Bafana a penalty in their 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Senegal has been suspended by CAF for three months and will miss the AFCON in Gabon.
Joseph Lamptey was roundly criticised for his performance in the qualifier in Polokwane and especially the penalty incident when replays indicated his verdict of handball was incorrect.
The Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) sent a letter of protest to CAF asking them to investigate the matter and now claim that Lamptey has received a suspension that will keep him out of the Nations Cup finals.
“Following the dispute and protest letter from the FSF on the refereeing of the match between South Africa and Senegal, CAF informs that its Referee Commission has decided to suspend referee Lamptey for three months. The latter being thus excluded from the next African Nations Cup in Gabon, because of his poor performance,” the FSF said in a statement.
A letter from the Senegalese federation that was released at the weekend claimed “the FSF noticed throughout the match scandalous refereeing decisions made for the benefit of the host team, which had direct consequences on the final score of the match, and the weakening of our position in the classification for the qualification for the World Cup”.
“In addition, there were many serious foul suffered by our players which went unsanctioned as well as non-existent offside decisions against us. The referee had, against all expectations, tipped the game firmly in favour of the South African team, particularly the dubious decisions with which they got their two goals,” said the FSF’s letter.
Senegal said referee Lamptey’s decision to give the penalty came “in spite of our players’ protests and, more seriously, by over-ruling the better-placed assistant referee who had indicated a corner that the South African players were eager to go and take”.
The FSF also claimed South Africa’s second goal from Thulani Serero was invalid as Bafana played while the referee had stopped the game for “an imaginary free-kick and was giving a verbal to the Senegalese defensive midfielder Idrissa Gana Guèye and captain Cheikhou Kouyaté”.
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