CAF suspends Nigeria v Cranes match ref

Jun 06, 2007

BARELY a week after the Uganda Cranes victory over Super Eagles of Nigeria, the local federation is celebrating a one-year ban slapped on Senegalese referee Badara Diatta.

By Swalley Kenyi

BARELY a week after the Uganda Cranes victory over Super Eagles of Nigeria, the local federation is celebrating a one-year ban slapped on Senegalese referee Badara Diatta.

Continental soccer body CAF on Tuesday banned Diatta for disallowing a would-be Cranes equaliser against the Super Eagles in the first leg Nations cup qualifier in Abeokuta last March. CAF however maintained the 1-0 result in favour of Nigeria.

A visibly happy FUFA president Lawrence Mulindwa said yesterday that Diatta was punished after a CAF meeting at the continental body's headquarters in Cairo on Tuesday.

He said that CAF’s technical, referees and disciplinary committees unanimously agreed to ban Diatta after reviewing recordings of the match.

“We (Uganda) may have lost points but there is now justice to ensure football is rid of poor officiating,” Mulindwa, who returned from cairo yesterday, noted.

“I watched the recordings with (CAF president Issa) Hayatou and other members. Everybody disagreed with the referee.”

Mulindwa said that although he wanted Diatta to be banned for three years, he was comfortable with the one-year punishment.

After briefing the press at the Front Page Microfinance-sponsored weekly conference at Mengo, Mulindwa also announced that they had finalised plans for the Cranes to camp in South Africa before proceeding to Lesotho for their second last qualifier on June 16.

The team leaves for South Africa on Sunday for a camp in Mamelodi Sundowns’ home ground for four days before proceeding to Lesotho.

Front Page, Samona and SMSMedia handed a total of sh2.3m in appreciation of the Cranes 2-1 win over Nigeria on Saturday.

FUFA, meanwhile, collected a record sh538m from the the match. The highest before was sh380m when Uganda hosted Rwanda in 2004, FUFA vice president (finance) Jowali Kyeyago announced.

The federation collected sh422.3m for 28,155 tickets of sh15000 for open stands, sh78.4m for 2615 tickets of sh30,000 covered stands and sh37.6m from 752 tickets sold for pavilion.

Although the federation earlier declared 42,000 tickets printed, Kyeyago said that TOTAL and Simba telecom jointly returned 13,088 of the 45000 tickets they received for sale.

He said FUFA was comfortable with the collection that hit their target. FUFA had targeted sh500m for the Cranes trip to Lesotho.

Kyeyago said FUFA was registering fans at $810 (sh1.4m) for a return ticket to Lesotho.

The MP for people with disabilities, Hood Katuramu, revealed parliament was planning a financial contribution to help FUFA in its 2008 Ghana Nations cup campaign.

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