A number of referees have been sent home by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and won’t officiate at any game again untill the end of this Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
One of them is Gabonese referee Pierre Ghislain Atcho who officiated Senegal vs Ivory Coast’s game, his offence being that he failed to show Sadio Manè a red card for that bad tackle on Ibrahim Sangaré.
Also, the entire match officials for that game have been excluded from the rest of the games in this tournament.
More so, the VAR officials who handled Cameroon v Nigeria are out too. The fourth referee for Egypt vs DR Congo’s game has been sent home too.
The dismissals comes from the CAF Referees Committee headed by Ivory Coast’s Désiré Doué Noumandiez.
During the round of 16 match between Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, referee Atcho gave a yellow card to Sadio Mane for a critical foul which many believed should have earned him a red card.
He equally refused a penalty to Senegal for a fault committed on Senegalese Saar.
His case will be reviewed at CAF’s headquarters and his chances of taking part in any CAF tournament this year is very slim.