Afcon: Oliseh, Ojidoh condemn referee

PA John Ojidoh, 86, was a football and track and field coach and later an athletics officiating official aside being a soccer referee.

This was before he became an astute sports administrator.

He called from his Illah home yesterday to condemn Daniel Bennet, the South African referee who officiated the match between Tunisia and Togo.

Citing many bad calls including the two penalties he denied Togo and the questionable one he awarded Tunisia, Ojidoh said the referee was out to rob Togo.

“What he tried to do was day light robbery against Togo but the God of soccer stood against him and Tunisia lost the penalty,” Ojidoh said.

The match ended 1-1. Had Tunisia scored the penalty, they probably could have won the match and qualified.
“Tunisia couldn’t come to the party throughout the tournament.

It was only the referee that was trying to push them into the quarter finals.

It’s a shame, the worst officiating we have seen in this fine tournament,” ex international, Sunday Oliseh said on television last night. Seven out of the eight quarter finalists are from West Africa. The other is South Africa.

“I’m not happy with the officiating. Nigeria suffered poor officiating against Zambia and what happened today is a shame to African football,” Ojidoh said.