Tunisia threatened with AFCON 2017 expulsion
Tunisia could be expelled from the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, while the country's football federation president Wadie Jary has been issued with a ban - pending a letter of apology - over suggestions of bias.
The Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) aimed the accusations in the direction of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following their controversial 2-1 AFCON quarter-final defeat to hosts Equatorial Guinea last Saturday.
Equatorial Guinea were staring down the barrel of defeat until Mauritian official Seechurn Rajindraparsad awarded a penalty in second-half stoppage time when Hamza Mathlouthi was penalised somewhat harshly for a foul on Ivan Bolado.
Players and officials from Tunisia, including Jary, confronted Rajindraparsad on the pitch at full-time and there was unrest in the stands at Estadio de Bata.
CAF subsequently banned Rajindraparsad for six months and delisted him from their elite panel of referees, while an apology was demanded from the FTF.
AFCON officials met in Malabo on Friday and has now opted to ban Jary from all CAF activity until an apology his made, while warning that the FTF must meet certain criteria set by CAF's Disciplinary Panel by March 31 in order to participate in the tournament in two years' time.
"At its meeting in Malabo, the Organising Committee for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations dealt with the behaviour of Mr Wadie Jary, president of the Tunisian Football Federation, during the match between Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea on 31 January 2015 in Bata," read a statement from CAF.
"Thus, the AFCON Organising Committee decided to suspend with immediate effect the President of the Tunisian Football Federation, Mr. Wadie Jary, from all activities related to CAF until he submitted a letter of apology or presented a letter with irrefutable, tangible evidence to substantiate claims of CAF bias against the Tunisian team.
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"The Executive Committee of CAF, which met on Friday, 6 February 2015 in Malabo, took note of the suspended sentence. The Committee also decided to give the Tunisian Football Federation until March 31, 2015 to comply with the recommendations of the Disciplinary Panel and the Organising Committee, otherwise the Executive Committee of CAF will disqualify Tunisian national team from the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017."
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