Bio
Gamal El Ghandour
Born: 1957-06-12
Intl. since: 1993-01-01
Hometown: Cairo
Country: Egypt
Speaks: Arabic, English
Occupation: accountant, television analyst
Hobbies:

Al Ghandour started refereeing in 1981. He became active in Egypt's First Division in 1989. He was a FIFA referee between 1993 and 2003.

active

Al Ghandour was active in five Africa Cups (in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 when he took charge of the final).

He participated in the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996) and in the Asian Cup (1997).
In 2001 he took charge of the semi-final between France and Brazil when they played the Confederations Cup.

WC 2x

His highest honour must have been his participation in the World Cup in France 1998 and Korea/Japan in 2002 leading six matches all together.

Europe

Al Ghandour was the first African referee to conduct a European match. He participated in EURO 2000 at Netherlands/Belgium where he took charge of two matches in the first round.

45

Having reached the age of 45, Gamal El-Ghandour had to quit international refereeing in december 2002. He started picking up work as a referee analyst for television and planned to establish a referee school.

Did you know
FIRST

  • In 1999 he officiated in the Japanese League. It made him the first Egyptian professional referee.
  • Al Ghandour was involved in the controversial quarterfinal match beween South Korea and Spain in the World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan. In this match Spain was beaten on penalties. In the first ninety minutes Spain were being denied two goals. There were a number of other embarrassing decisions during the match. After the match there was international condemnation of Al Ghandour's refereeing conduct. Allegations that the match was fixed, were brushed away by FIFA officials. Al Al Ghandour was rumoured to have received a car from the FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon, a South Korean, in exchange for favoring the home side in the quarterfinals. These allegations prompted Ghandour to threaten legal action. Eventually Al Ghandour chose to end his illustrious career under a cloud of suspicion (source: Wikipedia).
  • In the Asian Cup 1996 Ghandour refereed another controversial match. This time between hosts United Arab Emirates and Iraq. The UAE eventually won 1-0 after extra time, however many clear decisions went against the Iraqis, including a UAE defender punching the ball out of the area. The UAE faced Kuwait in the semi-finals, with the Kuwaiti team having announced that they would withdraw had Iraq qualified (source: Wikipedia).
  • In 1995

  • In 2011

Statistics
Statistics for GAMAL EL GHANDOUR
Totals Home Away Total
Penalties 5 3 8
Fouls 0 0 0
Yellow 52 53 105
YellowRed 0 0 0
Red 1 4 5
Averages Home Away Total
Penalties 0.12 0.07 0.1
Fouls 0 0 0
Yellow 1.27 1.29 1.28
YellowRed 0 0 0
Red 0.02 0.1 0.06

Based on 41 international matches

Matches
MATCHES FOR GAMAL EL GHANDOUR
Date Score Yellow Red Penalties Fouls
WC 2002
1/4 finalsSpainKorea Republic2002-06-220 - 0 3 (2-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageCosta RicaBrazil2002-06-132 - 5 1 (0-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageSpainParaguay2002-06-073 - 1 4 (1-3)0 (0-0)1 (1-0)0 (0-0)
African Nations Cup 2002
finalSenegalCameroon2002-02-100 - 0 6 (3-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageCameroonCote d'Ivoire2002-01-251 - 0 3 (0-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
WC 2002 qualifiers - Am/Caribbean
final roundJamaicaMexico2001-09-021 - 2 4 (2-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
Confederations Cup 2001
1/2 finalsFranceBrazil2001-06-072 - 1 6 (4-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageFranceKorea Republic2001-05-305 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
WC 2002 qualifiers - Africa
2nd stageCameroonZambia2001-02-251 - 0 4 (1-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
2nd stageNigeriaSudan2001-01-273 - 0 2 (0-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
Euro 2000
group stageDenmarkCzech Republic2000-06-210 - 2 5 (3-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageSpainNorway2000-06-130 - 1 3 (2-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
African Nations Cup 2000
1/2 finalsNigeriaSouth Africa2000-02-102 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageGhanaCote d'Ivoire2000-01-310 - 2 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageSouth AfricaGabon2000-01-233 - 1 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
Euro 2000 qualifiers
SloveniaGreece1999-10-090 - 3 2 (2-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
WC 1998
1/4 finalsBrazilDenmark1998-07-033 - 2 6 (3-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageUSAYugolsavia1998-06-250 - 1 3 (1-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageChileAustria1998-06-171 - 1 5 (4-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
African Nations Cup 1998
3rd placeCongo DRBurkina Faso1998-02-274 - 4 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageBurkina FasoCameroon1998-02-070 - 1 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
WC 1998 qualifiers - Asia
2nd roundSaudi ArabiaQatar1997-10-111 - 0 2 (0-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
WC 1998 qualifiers - Africa
2nd roundZimbabweCameroon1997-08-171 - 2 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
2nd roundAngolaZimbabwe1996-11-102 - 1 4 (2-2)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
Cote d'IvoireCongo1996-06-161 - 1 5 (2-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
2nd roundSouth AfricaZambia1996-06-083 - 0 5 (2-3)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
Asian Cup 1996
1/2 finalsIranSaudi Arabia1996-12-180 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
1/4 finalsUAEIraq1996-12-151 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageSaudi ArabiaThailand1996-12-056 - 0 0 (0-0)1 (0-1)2 (2-0)0 (0-0)
Olympic Games 1996
3rd placeBrazil OTPortugal OT1996-08-025 - 0 4 (3-1)0 (0-0)1 (1-0)0 (0-0)
1/4 finalsArgentina OTSpain OT1996-07-274 - 0 4 (1-3)0 (0-0)1 (1-0)0 (0-0)
group stageBrazil OTHungary OT1996-07-233 - 1 6 (2-4)1 (0-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageArgentina OTPortugal OT1996-07-221 - 1 4 (3-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
African Nations Cup 1996
1/2 finalsSouth AfricaGhana1996-01-313 - 0 3 (2-1)1 (0-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageCote d'IvoireMozambique1996-01-211 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
group stageGabonLiberia1996-01-161 - 2 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)1 (0-1)0 (0-0)
WC 1995 u20
1/4 finalsSpain u20Russia u201995-04-234 - 1 1 (1-0)0 (0-0)1 (0-1)0 (0-0)
group stageBurundi u20Japan u201995-04-190 - 2 2 (2-0)0 (0-0)1 (0-1)0 (0-0)
group stageRussia u20Brazil u201995-04-170 - 0 8 (4-4)2 (1-1)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
African Nations Cup 1996 qualifiers
TunisiaTogo1994-11-131 - 1 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)
friendly
EgyptGhana1994-08-232 - 0 0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)0 (0-0)