Burkina Faso’s Jonathan Pitroipa was cleared to play in the African Cup of Nations Final after the Confederation of African Football on Friday overturned a decision by a now-suspended referee to send him off in the semifinals for diving.
Africa’s ruling football body agreed with a protest by the Burkina Faso team and the recommendation of its own refereeing committee that Tunisian referee Slim Jdidi’s second yellow card for Pitroipa for simulation in the final minutes of extra time in the semifinal against Ghana was wrong.
Pitroipa could now play at Soccer City on Sunday, CAF said, where match officials will face extra scrutiny in the last, decisive game of the tournament.
Mali coach Patrice Carteron said Friday that there had been a lot of “big mistakes” by referees at this African Cup.
CAF rescinded the second yellow and therefore the red card shown to Pitroipa by Jdidi, giving the France-based forward the chance to represent his country in its first big final. But the move by CAF’s disciplinary committee only came after the Tunisian official conceded he had made a mistake to send Pitroipa off near the end of extra time in Nelspruit on Wednesday.
Without Jdidi’s admission that he got it wrong in what CAF referred to as an “additional report” after the match, the ruling body wouldn’t have been able to act and Pitroipa would have been forced to miss the game.