Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi blamed Gambian referee Bakary Gassama for eliminating the "Desert Warriors" against Cameroon in the qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup.
The coach - who announced that he will remain at the head of the national team's technical crossbar - told what he told the Gambian referee in his first meeting with him immediately after the match.
Belmadi said - in an interview with the website of the Algerian Football Association - "I was upset when I saw the referee Gassama in the airport terminal (Houari Boumediene) sipping coffee, eating sweets and sitting comfortably, and I told him: You were not honest and I repeated that to him in Istanbul, when I met him again during the flight."
He continued, "I took out everything I had and told Gassama that you are a hakkar (that is, an oppressor)."
"There were two men for the Cameroon match, the first was Gassama, and the second was goalkeeper Andre Onana, who saved a lot of balls," he added.
In his speech, Belmadi described arbitration in Africa as "disastrous...when it comes to decisive matches, arbitration in Africa becomes a market."
He explained that "the rulers of Africa are prehistoric rulers, I worked in Europe and Asia, the mistakes of rulers are few there, and we are very far from them."
It is noteworthy that the Algerian Football Federation lodged a protest with the International Football Association "FIFA", about the mistakes committed by referee Gassama in the match, and the referees committee of the international body meets and reveals its decision in this regard.
Cameroon snatched the qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup from Algeria, after defeating it at the last minute of extra time 2-1 in the second leg of the African playoff to compensate for its loss in Douala with a clean goal.