Egypt FA alleged that their players, particularly Salah, were racially abused and attacked, while Algeria complained about poor officiating
By Kehinde Okeowo
Two North African countries, Egypt and Algeria have asked the world football governing body, FIFA, to order the replays of their recently concluded World Cup qualifiers.
Algeria dramatically lost 2-1 at home to the Indomitable Lions Cameroon, who in turn secured the ticket to Qatar on away goal rule, despite losing the first leg 0-1 at home.
Their Football Federation on Thursday subsequently lodged a complaint with FIFA asking that the second leg against Cameroon be repeated.
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The Desert Foxes in their protest letter asserted that they were not satisfied with how the center referee, Bakary Gassama, who is from the Gambia handled the encounter.
“Faf officially lodges an appeal with Fifa against the scandalous arbitration which distorted the result of the match,” the Algerian FA statement read.
“We are determined to use all the legally permitted votes to have their rights restored and to replay the match under conditions guaranteeing the honesty and partiality of the arbitration.”
Meanwhile, TheNiche earlier reported that their North African neighbours, Egypt, asked for a replay, after losing on penalties to the reigning African Champions, Senegal.
Egypt FA filed a complaint, saying their players, particularly Salah, were racially abused, had objects thrown at them during the warm-up, and that their bus was attacked.
“We asked for a replay of the match because the match was held in a strange atmosphere, and if we had lost in normal circumstances, we would have congratulated Senegal,” said Gamal Allam, who is the head of the Egyptian FA.
“We will present what happened to the disciplinary committee in the federation and await a response. There are many things that happened with us in the match. Our players were attacked.
“Mohamed Salah had the most share of the Senegalese fans’ attack on him, which tried to intimidate the players as well, and we asked that the board of directors be on the bench of the match, but they refused.”