Kick-Off for AFCON 2012

We need African refs

Taking the principle of the so called "continental neutrality" into consideration which had been being effective since the last World Cup in 2010, which means that - if the involved teams are from two different confederations - the referee has to come from a nation which joins another confederation than the involved teams, there is a great need to have more high-qualified CAF referees.

Referees

Noumandiez Doue from Côte d'Ivoire was in charge of this match. The recently awarded "Best African Referee 2011" was assisted by Songuifolo Yeo, Jason Damoo and Khalid Abdel Rahman.

Calls

As we know him, Doue did not manage to show a convincing line. His foul detection sometimes appears as weird. The first half was really good but in the second half there were plenty of doubtful decisions due to a slightly lazy style and the fact that he did not appear as concentrated as it would have been necessary. However, he had a good rapport with the players. Three of the four yellows were justified. In minute 8, there was a situation where it could have been a penalty to Libya. It was not 100% a foul, but he did not play the ball 100% either. At first glance, it seemed to be no penalty, but the replays raise doubts on that. But there were three situations we have to focus on.

Offsides + dive

In minute 17, Jason Damoo disallowed a goal of the host nation due to passive offside which became active. Contrary to what I said before, it was outstanding well seen; then, Equatorialguinea came back and scored in minute 88, also a very close situation, Yeo decided onside, that was perfectly seen, perhaps the foot was 5 cm offside but who should evaluate that? To my mind rather onside as the defender's upper body was potentially on level with the striker's foot. In the very last minute, there was an obvious dive of a Libyan who wanted a penalty. Well seen, correctly cautioned. The added time of 3 minutes was adequate, but pls, Noumandiez, why did you let the play go on until 90+6???

Further aspects

Equatorialguinea is the deserved winner but one has to say that this match had many low stages. Low football quality, but high pace, tension and a good atmosphere in new stadiums. CAF should learn a bit from all the other confeds and improve their information policy.

@ Cagatay

Where was the goal offside? Brilliantly seen by Yeo.. http://s7.directupload.net/file/d/2777/dqbg6xhl_jpg.htm