AFCON 2015: Ghana coach Avram Grant braced for likely unfair officiating in semis clash
Ghana coach Avram Grants insists he is not bothered by the possibility of his side getting robbed by match officials in the 2015 AFCON semi final clash against Equatorial Guinea.
The Black Stars come up against the tournament hosts on Thursday to slug it out for a place in Sunday’s grand finale in Bata.
Equatorial Guinea profited immensely from a huge refereeing mistake in their quarter final game against Tunisia.
A late penalty awarded was awarded for the Nzalang Nacional to drew level against the North Africans.
Equatorial Guinea eventually won the game in extra time to record their first ever qualification to the semi finals in any major competition.
There is a growing conspiracy theory that CAF is aiding the progress of Equatorial Guinea in the competition through the use of match officials as a thank you for saving the tournament with their last-gasp decision to host it after the withdrawal of Morocco.
Fears are even heightened that the Black Stars stand to suffer more from this perception but coach Avram Grant says he is not bothered by this possibility – trusting that the right thing will be done on Thursday.
“Look, this thing I cannot control. If the referee will do one or two, three [mistakes] I cannot control,” he said.
“I can control only about our performance. I want to believe that everything outside the pitch is good.
“I think the referees until now from what I have seen – except one or two games – have been good.
“So this is not my issue, I am sure everyone will be watching this and everybody that needs to take care of this will do their job.”
Readers Comment
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African Consciousness
9 years ago
Play beautiful Ghana soccer, avoid dangerous tackles, avoid vlolent outbursts, do not abuse the referee, stay on-side, score clean goals and you take the referee out of the equation.
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A concerned citizen
9 years ago
Black Stars must be careful when they are heckled down by their opponents. They must take heart not to overreact to attract yellow cards because some bias referee can use it to favor the Equatorial Guinea. Andre Ayew did a good job to win "the fair play award which is worthy of emulation by his team mates. Goalkeeper Braimah needs to be cautioned about his delay tactics getting to the end of every game. It is dangerous to adopt that tactics because the referee can take advantage to favor the home team.
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millennium
9 years ago
On the reverse the refereeing might be in favor of the stars or at least fair given what has been said about their game with Tunisia
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Ibrahim azure malik
9 years ago
Their president can be the referee,defence minister and vice president the lastmen and caf prez himself can even be their central defender we must win this game worry not guyz.
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Ibrahim azure malik
9 years ago
Their President Can Be The Referee,Their Vice President And Defence Minister Can Be The LastMen caf president can even be their central defender we must win this game trust me when i say so.
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