Africa Cup of Nations: Tunisia face ban after refusing toapologise

Tunisia face being banned from the next Africa Cup of Nations
after refusing to apologise for accusing the Confederation of
African Football (Caf) of cheating.
They made the allegations after conceding a controversial
stoppage-time penalty in a 2-1 defeat by Equatorial Guinea in
the quarter-finals.
The game’s referee has been banned for six months for “poor
performance”.
Tunisia had until Thursday to say sorry or face a ban from the
2017 edition.
After a meeting on Wednesday, the Tunisian FA refused to
apologise with a spokesman saying the team had “suffered
scandalous injustice from referees”.
Caf, which fined Tunisia after players confronted referee
Rajindraparsad Seechurn after the final whistle, had wanted
the 2004 champions to apologise for “insinuations of bias and
lack of ethics against Caf and its officials, or to present
irrefutable evidence to substantiate the accusations”.
African football’s governing body said it had been sent two
letters by the Tunisian FA after the match, with the second
asking for an investigation and suggesting Caf and its officials
“were questionable and biased against Tunisia in general”.
Caf fined Tunisia $50,000 (£33,000) for what it termed “the
aggressive attitude of some supporters in the stands, invasion
of the pitch after the final whistle by players and substitutes
of the Tunisian team – insulting the referee of the match and
trying to physically assault him – and the regrettable
behaviour of the president of the Tunisian Football Federation,
Wadie Jary”.
The Tunisian federation was also ordered to pay for damages
after their players broke a changing-room door and a fridge.
The ugly scenes came after Mauritian referee Seechurn had
awarded the penalty in stoppage time when Ali Maaloul was
harshly ruled to have fouled Ivan Bolado when Tunisia were
leading 1-0 and, after equalising from the spot through Javier
Balboa, hosts Equatorial Guinea went on to win in extra time.
Equatorial Guinea face Ghana on Thursday for a place in
Sunday’s final against Ivory Coast.
Qualifying for the 2017 tournament starts in June.
( BBC SPORT )