It’s the story of a match that caused a lot of ink to flow… and which will continue to be talked about in Algeria. But the now famous return to qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup between Algeria and Cameroon will not be replayed despite the complaint lodged by the Fennecs with the FIFA Referees Commission.
The Algerian Football Federation (FAF) has made public a letter sent to it on Friday May 6 by Fifa. “We regret that, according to your assessment, the decisions of the referees could have negatively influenced the course of the meeting, writes the authority. We have taken good note of the elements of your letter and we can already guarantee that all the incidents that occurred during the match have been carefully examined by the two “video” referees, in accordance with the Laws of the Game and the arbitration video assistance protocol. »
Clearly, there will be no Act III, while Algeria has been clinging for a few weeks to the mad hope of a miracle to afford a trip to Qatar at the end of the year.
After winning 1-0 in the first leg on March 25, the Greens lost 1-2 at the Mustapha-Tchaker stadium in Blida on March 29 after an unlikely scenario. Led 0-1 following the opener of Choupo-Moting, the Algerians had equalized in extra time through Ahmed Touba (1-1, 118th).
At that moment, they were therefore virtually qualified for the planetary high mass of football. But a goal from Karl Toko Ekambi in the 120th minute (with the away goal rule still in effect, unlike for example in the Champions League) had ruined their dreams.
At the end of the match, coach Djamel Belmadi had instructed the Gambian referee for the match, Bakary Gassama, who had notably refused two goals from Islam Slimani to the Algerians. Three days later, the FAF had decided to counter-attack on green carpet, asking that the VAR recordings and the exchanges between the central referee and the German VAR referees be exposed in order to shed light on certain areas of difficulty. shadow and contentious decisions. Several hundred Algerian supporters even went to demonstrate in front of FIFA headquarters in Switzerland…
“If they win, you are the good referee and if they lose, they call you a bad referee,” said Bakary Gassama, openly accused on social networks of corruption and collusion with Samuel Eto’o, the new president. of the Cameroonian federation.