CAIRO - The Chief of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) slammed Monday what he termed as the unfair decisions of the Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey during Egypt’s Al-Ahly and Tunisia's Esperance match in the semi-final at the African Champions League (ACL) Sunday night.
Samir Zaher phoned Al-Ahly Chairman Hassan Hamdi Monday and expressed disappointment over the unexpected exit of the Red Devils from the ACL semi-final.
"I called Hamdi to express EFA's support for Al-Ahly against the referee," Zaher said.
Al-Ahly lodged a formal complaint accompanied by the tape of the game to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to investigate the incident which affected the game.
"We will use all legal options to defend Al-Ahly's rights at the CAF," Zaher stressed.
Al-Ahly technical coach Hossam el-Badri said that his side didn't deserve to lose against the Tunisian rivals, putting the blame on the referee.
"Initially I blamed players for their nervous performance, but it’s the referee’s fault," el-Badri said in Tunisia Monday.
"But this is not the end, and we will concentrate on the local Premier League and Egypt Cup in the coming period," he added.
"The game is over. I feel sorry for what happened," he told Egyptian radio after the game.
"Of course I'm not satisfied with the referee, and with all due respect, Esperance didn't deserve to qualify for the competition final.
Soccer experts, meanwhile, agreed that Lamptey played an important and unfair role in the defeat of the Red Devils. Lamptey allowed the goal to stand although the Nigerian striker’s handball was quite blatant.
"The referee contributed to Ahly’s defeat from the very beginning," said Egypt's and Tersana star Hassan el-Shazli.
El-Shazli added that Lamptey’s controversial refereeing was responsible for the Ahly players’ lack of nerve, which resulted in their shaky performance.
"The Red Devils players are experienced and not supposed to follow Esperance's players in their nervous reactions," he said.
El-Shazli added that difficult circumstances facing el-Badri before the game had also contributed to this unexpected style and performance.
Adel Hikal, ex-Ahly and Egypt's goalkeeper agreed and said that the Red Devils' exit started in Cairo two weeks ago.
"Al-Ahly compromised his right to book the final ticket from Cairo, where the team couldn't clinch a comfortable win that would have helped them in the second-leg match in Tunisia," Hikal explained.
The Egyptian Referees Committee's chief yesterday denounced the performance of the Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey during Egypt's Al-Ahly and Tunisia's Esperance match.
"These are African Referees," Mohamed Hossam, the Chief of the Egyptian Referees Committee said Monday.
"Refereeing will suffer in the coming period, affecting the top category of the coming African referees generation,” he added.
"Although Lamptey is young, he is a very bad example for the African referees," said Essam Abdel Fattah, an ex-international Egyptian referee.
Esperance will play two-time champions Mazembe TP of DR Congo in the final. Two-time champions Mazembe defended strongly late in the game against JS Kabylie of Algeria to reach their fifth final in the continent flagship club competition.
Mazembe won the Champions League in 1967 and 1968 and finished runners-up in 1969 and 1970. This year's Champions League final will take place on the weekend of November 12-14. The winners will pocket prize money of $1.5m and will also qualify to represent Africa at the 2010 Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in December.
Esperance coach Faouzi Benzarti said his side’s progress to the final was a validation his young players’ ability.
“We prepared a tactic of pressuring our opponent in front of their goal, and we got an early strike,” he said.
“We had chances to score a second goal, but unfortunately they did not come. However, we prevented Ahly from playing their game, and for that, I congratulate my young players on their efforts.”
Esperance last reached the final in 2000, when they lost to Hearts of Oak of Ghana. They also reached the final in 1999, when they went down to Raja Casablanca of Morocco on penalties.
Their only success in Africa’s top club competition came in 1994. Mazembe will host the first leg of the final in Lubumbashi on October 31 with the return leg in Tunis on November 13 .
Mazembe secured a 3-1 aggregate win over JS Kabylie of Algeria after a goalless away draw in Saturday’s second-leg, putting up a resolute defensive performance that resulted in their hosts giving up on the match long before the final whistle.
Mazembe had prepared well for the match, travelling to Algeria early and spending almost a week in north Africa before the game.
Captain Pamphile Mihayo was imperious at the back along with Joel Kimwaki and Bedi Mpenza as Mazembe overcame the scare of a 21st minute effort from Nassim Oussalah, which hit the upright.
Kabylie’s cause was not helped when midfielder Bilal Naili was sent off just after the hour mark after picking up a second yellow card, and in the end, the Algerians seemed to run out of ideas in their fortress at Tizi-Ouzou.
“We did not expect the injury to our defender [Idrissa] Coulibaly nor the expulsion of Naili,” said JSK’s Swiss coach Alain Geiger after the 0-0 stalemate.
