Why it is easy for AFCON to be unfair to Tunisia? It is like politics

Most international sports media have been fussing about the highly controversial game which Tunisia lost to Equatorial Guinea in the ¼ finals of the African Cup of Nations 2015.

As Tunisia was heading towards qualification to the semi finals of the African Cup at the expense of the host country Equatorial Guinea who were at the brink of elimination trailing 1-0 to Tunisia, the Mauritian referee Rajindrapasad Seechurn ruled that Ivan Bolado had been fouled in the penalty zone and awarded the hosts a penalty.

Replays of the ‘foul’ showed the Guinean player wasn’t touched by the Tunisian defender.

The hosts equalized the score 1-1 and went to the extra time during which the referee turned a blind eye to many serious tackles on Tunisian players. Added to that, he awarded the Equatorial Guineans another imaginary free kick after a Guinea striker pretended he was tackled near the penalty area. The free kick was tuned into a second goal.

But the circumstances of the game raise suspicions. One of them is that Equatorial Guinea saved the AFCON when it proposed to host the competition originally scheduled to be played in Morocco who apologized in the last moment for not being able to host it due to Ebola fears.

Issa Hayatou, the president of the AFCON, had his neck saved by the political leadership of Equatorial Guinea, something for which he was thankful. He had to translate into something, a good present, a semi-final.

But didn’t the AFCON and Hayatou fear Tunisia?

One of the reasons is that at a certain moment before 2011, Tunisia had an influential man in FIFA named Slim Chiboub. This man was taken into account whenever Tunisian Football was concerned.

Slim Chiboub was also the son-in-law of Tunisia’s former President Ben Ali. But as the latter was removed in the 14^th January events, his son-in-law had to leave Tunisia to Dubai and leave his wealth and influence behind him.

That was a bless for Hayatou who has a background of quarrels and disagreements with Tunisian teams.  

The only obstacle that remained in front of Hayatou was Mr. Bouchamaoui, Tunisian who was trusted with the mission of appointing referees to games. This guy had also been removed before the competition.

In a world in which sports are used as another form of politics, economic and political circumstances are taken into account when unfairness comes into play. Unlike most North African countries, Tunisia does not have so many investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. So when injustice against Tunisia is intended, the AFCON members do not have much to fear.