CAF ban referee for six months after Africa Cup embarrassment

Rajindraparsad Seechurn, the referee at the center of a controversial quarterfinal win for hosts Equatorial Guinea, has been suspended by Africa's governing body (CAF) for six months.

Meanwhile, Tunisia's Football Federation has been fined $50,000 for their role in the ugly scenes following the host nation's progression to the final four.

Equatorial Guinea came out 2-1 winners against the Tunisians who had held a single goal lead at the half-time break. The host nation took the game to extra-time and were then handed a hotly-contested penalty decision by the Mauritian official.

Seechurn has been sent home from the tournament, judged to have refereed the game poorly and has since been removed from the list of the top African match officials, which basically ends his career as an international referee.

"The last thing you can call this is a football match," said Tunisian defender Mohamed Yaakoubi after the defeat.

"We felt they wanted us to lose by force. The penalty decision was not justified and came at a crucial time -- it was not fair what the referee did."

'An injustice'

Tunisia's 65-year-old head coach Georges Leekens told reporters that he hadn't seen anything like it in 45 years of professional football.

"The referee has made a huge error, It's hard to accept certain things in life, like the loss of a child, the loss of family.

"I hope everyone saw the images, two penalties we didn't receive, we had one penalty against us, outside the box. It's an injustice. It's a shame for football," the Belgian said.

The football authorities handed out the disciplinary action to Tunisia for "insolent, aggressive and unacceptable behavior of the players and officials" in the commotion that followed the decision by Seechurn.

The Tunisian Football Federation were also told to pay the cost of the damages to the Estadio da Bata. Wadie Jary, the head of the country's football authorities, handed in his resignation from the Africa Cup of Nations organizing committee on Sunday.

Officials have been warned to ramp up security measures when Democratic Republic of Congo take on Ivory Coast this Thursday, while Equatorial Guinea face Ghana in the second semifinal.

rd / apc (AFP, AP, Reuters)