DAKAR: Senegal’s Teranga Lions face further punishment from the African confederation after their expulsion from the 2013 African Nations Cup waqs confirmed because of the riot which forced the abandonment of Saturday’s qualifier against Ivory Coast in Dakar.
CAF’s disciplinary committee, meeting in Cairo, reviewed reports of all the events led to the abandonment of the match with Senegal 2-0 down.
A statement said: “CAF [has] decided to officially confirm the result of the match as 2-0 in favor of Ivory Coast in accordance with the provisions of article 16 para 20 of the regulations of the competition and to consider Senegal the loser of the said match and eliminated from the competition without prejudice to any other sanctions that may be imposed by CAF Disciplinary Board.”
Article 16 para 20 stipulates: “If the referee is forced to stop the match before the end of the regular time because of invasion of the field or aggression against the visiting team, the host team shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated from the competition, without prejudice to the sanctions existing in the regulations.”
Violence erupted soon after Didier Drogba had scored his second goal of the match in the 74th minute. Several fans were injured including the Senegalese Sports Minister. Senegal had needed to win the game by at least two goals to qualify for the finals in South Africa in January and February.
Missiles, stones, bottles, firecrackers were thrown onto the pitch and tear gas was used prompting the referee to stop the match with 16 minutes of the match remaining.
Qualified nations are Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde Islands, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia (holders).
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