Another painful blow for Tunisia in the African Nations Cup
The Tunisian Football Federation (Al-Ittihad) announced on Friday that the results of the tests of six players from the national team were infected with the “Covid 19” virus, which is another blow to their hopes in the African Nations Cup after the “strange” loss against Mali 0-1 in the first round.
The university said in a statement, "The tests conducted this morning showed that Naim Al-Saliti, Yuan Tozgar, Osama Al-Hadadi, Muhammad Dragher, Dylan Brun and Issam Al-Jabali were infected with the Corona virus."
The players were placed in isolation and will miss the match against Mauritania on Sunday in the second round of Group F competitions.
The news came two days after a controversial defeat to Mali in which Zambian referee Jani Zikazui blew the final whistle twice before the end of her regular time.
Mali were 1-0 up when Sikazwe announced the end of the match after 85 minutes, and then again in the 89th minute:42, noting that three minutes of overtime were to be added.
This end angered the Tunisian technical staff and the players, and coach Munther Al-Kabeer approached the referee, pointing to his watch and telling him that the time was not over yet, but in vain, before the refereeing staff came out with a security escort.
Minutes after the players entered the dressing room, one of the main referee's assistants returned and the two teams were called again to the field to complete the confrontation, and while the Mali players returned, their Tunisian counterparts did not return.
Tunisia lodged a protest with the African Confederation of the game, which rejected the latter, and the Mali victory was approved.
The head of the referees committee in the Egyptian African Confederation, Essam Abdel-Fattah, defended Sikazwe in statements reported by Egyptian media, in which he said, “The Zambian referee was suffering from a very violent sunstroke and severe dehydration, and since the 80th minute he completely lost his focus when the stoppage time was calculated, and then continued for the minute. 85 And he was alerted by his colleagues to complete the match before he whistled in the 89th minute.”
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