Slender, with a good plant raised over his 1.87, a temperate sediment, in full maturity -45 years- and dialoguing, the Egyptian Jamal Al-Ghandour he seemed to be someone who conveyed peace. But that morning of June 22, 20 years ago, was a torment for Spain in the famous and controversial match against Korea and neither the players nor the fans would ever forget his name.
His ‘accomplices’, two assistants who assisted Korea in the strictest sense: Michael Ragoonathfrom Trinidad and Tobago, and the Ugandan Ali Don’t Find Him. Already retired today at the age of 65, Al-Ghandour works as a FIFA instructor and as a television analyst for Bein Sports, lives in an exclusive neighborhood of Cairo and is rather a bird of the night. Out of curiosity, he answered MD’s request for an interview after 10 p.m., politely declining the proposal.
Camacho protests a decision to Ragoonath
Al-Ghandour’s speech on that party is lasting and convinced over time. The Egyptian maintains that this meeting is one of his best works and places most of the blame on the linemen. “It is one of the best games of my career. I have a very calm conscience”, he said in an extensive interview granted to #Vamos in 2019 and in which players like Morientes showed their unfiltered opinion of what they thought so many years later. In previous years, he had spoken in another interview with Canal +, acknowledging, in the plural, “That we had made serious mistakes.”
“My referee inspector gave me an 8.7. I don’t know why the Spaniards are still angry, I didn’t make any mistakes, it’s the linemen’s fault, They attacked me and I don’t know why. I have had problems, the Spanish newspapers have attacked me, it was even said that they gave me a car, which I cannot do because I am a Muslim and I cannot accept blackmail or bribes”, defended Al-Ghandour, who has analyzed more than once the so debatable plays always intoning the same speech. Baraja’s headed goal disallowed in the 50th minute was indeed his decision, which he continues to defend.
The cover of MD the day after the controversial elimination
“I whistle before the auction. Helguera puts his hand on the defender’s back and it’s a foul”, explained the Egyptian pigtail. In the ‘tempo’ of the whistle he also takes refuge to oppose the header of Morientes In the addition before the extra time, another goal was invalidated, that of Joaquín’s center that came out according to the linesman, Michael Ragoonath. “It is evident that the ball does not come out, but I whistle a goal kick before the goal. Everyone stopped at that moment, ”explained the former Egyptian referee, who recognized the lack of appreciation in the non-existent offsides of the extra time. As a contradictory paradox to his argument, that Spain-Korea was his last game as an international.
His arbitration vocation derived from a coincidence and a suggestion as he told in #Vamos. Al-Ghandour began as the one who is the biggest headache for the profession that he later practiced, a central hard prone to expulsions. He was 32 years old when, in a friendly in which he was injured, he began to deliver justice on the pitch. They congratulated him, encouraged him to enroll in arbitration and the reason for his new job was the ambition to be in a World Cup. His fame would come to accompany him for the rest of his life.
Michael Ragoonath, the linesman who ‘forgave’ Koke Contreras
The referee with the eye that distorted the line that never exceeded Joaquín’s play. the lineman of Trinidad and Tobago An international competition did not go again but in 2010 he received an unexpected visit in a story as unusual as it is beautiful, the only visible story of reconciliation between the injured side and the one that harmed. Koke Contreras, third goalkeeper of that team, he embarked on a sailboat bound for Trinidad and Tobago in search of the questioned linesman to ask him for explanations, but with a constructive air. The interview was satisfactory and the former goalkeeper of Real Madrid, Malaga and Betis among others, he was even moved that that mistake ended his international career as a referee.
Retired at the age of 55, Ragoonath is interim head of the refereeing department of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association. The arbitration of the Central American country will once again have a referee in a World Cup, since Caleb Wales will be an assistant in Qatar. Trinidad and Tobago had not been represented in the refereeing ranks at a World Cup since Ragoonath in Korea and Japan 2002.
Ali Tomusange and the unfortunate link between Ugandan referees and Spain
Ali Tomusange completed the refereeing trio for Spain-Korea. Although he did not intervene in any of the disallowed goals, he was responsible for more than one offside of the three in which Spanish players started online. It should be because his mistakes were more acceptable that the Ugandan returned to direct matches in international competitions and in more than one: the Africa Cup 2004 -in which he also refereed the final-, and the 2005 Confederations Cup.
Tomusange, in the background, replicating alongside Ragoonath Luque’s complaints
Beyond his resume, Tomusange was a pioneering example for his country by becoming the ugandan first braid -and until now the only one-, which performed in a World Cup. The link between the Ugandan referees and Spain did not exactly evoke good memories, and the linesman came to ‘confirm’ it, since the one who was going to be the first Ugandan to referee a World Cup, Keith Bukenyadied two months before the World Cup in Spain ’82.
Another of the ironies with ties to that Spain-Korea is the decision made by Ali Tomusange as president of the referees’ disciplinary committee of the Ugandan Federation: suspend a lineman for a month in the country’s league for having annulled a goal that should not have been invalidated because beforehand the ball had not crossed the line and, therefore, had not come out. A family situation. A frustrated footballer -he had to retire young due to an injury-, Tomusange is also currently FIFA instructor.