Scandal in Tunisia-Mali: the referee whistled the end in the 85th minute!

The African Cup experienced a real scandal when referee William Sikazwe, from Zambia, brought forward the final of Tunisia-Mali by several minutes, the first match of the group E. In minute 85 ‘he took the whistle to his mouth and decreed the end to everyone’s surprise and with 1-0 in favor of the Malians.

Before the stupor of the Tunisian bench, the referee realized that something was wrong and resumed the clash without much conviction. Only four minutes later, at 89 ‘, if he whistled for good, also before regulation time, as if he had only added a hypothetical time added to his mistake. In no case did the meeting reach 90 minutes.

The players and the Tunisian coach took to the field to protest to the referee by giving him clock signals. Sikazwe seemed to understand nothing, and neither did his assistants. Only the fourth official said something to him under, as if telling him what was happening. Finally, the referee team left the field protected by the security guards and strongly criticized by Tunisia.

The match ended 1-0 in favor of Mali with a penalty goal from Koné, The story did not finish there. The CAF forced to play the last minutes, but only Mali appeared at the restart, and not Tunisia, outraged by the lack of accuracy in the referee’s clock, who starred in one of the biggest scandals in the history of the African Cup: whistling the end early.