{"id":47160,"date":"2026-01-15T21:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=47160"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:01:23","slug":"egypt-seethes-over-controversial-refereeing-in-senegal-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=47160","title":{"rendered":"Egypt Seethes Over Controversial Refereeing in Senegal Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cairo \u2013<\/strong> A wave of anger has swept through Egyptian football circles following the national team’s elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Senegal. The defeat, decided by a late goal, has been overshadowed by officiating decisions deemed unfair and questionable by many in Egypt.<\/p>\n

With the ‘Pharaohs’ out of contention for the title, they will now face Nigeria in the third-place play-off, while Senegal advances to the final against Morocco.<\/p>\n

Controversy Erupts Over Key Decisions<\/em><\/p>\n

Former refereeing expert Gamal El-Ghandour has been a vocal critic of the officiating, asserting that the match was marred by a series of erroneous calls from the very beginning. He highlighted an early incident in the fourth minute when Emam Ashour appeared to be fouled by a Senegalese defender, arguing that it warranted a foul and a yellow card, which the referee ignored.<\/p>\n

El-Ghandour also pointed to a questionable offside call against Egypt in the 28th minute, claiming that the assistant referee’s decision was completely unjustified. He did, however, concede that a penalty appeal for Ahmed Sayed Zizo in the 81st minute was correctly dismissed, as the player did not have clear control of the ball.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, El-Ghandour questioned the referee’s decision to halt a promising Egyptian attack inside the penalty area in the 90th minute without a clear foul. He then focused on the most contentious moment: Sadio Mane’s winning goal for Senegal.<\/p>\n

The goal, he argued, was shrouded in doubt, citing potential offside in the build-up or a possible handball by Mane. He criticized the lack of VAR intervention, stating that the incident raises serious questions about the integrity of the decision.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian team and its supporters feel that the refereeing was biased towards Senegal, ultimately costing Egypt a place in the final. The debate is likely to continue for some time.<\/p>\n

More Sports articles on DZWatch<\/a><\/p>\n

DZWatch – Your News Portal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cairo \u2013 A wave of anger has swept through Egyptian football circles following the national team’s elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Senegal. The defeat, decided by a late goal, has been overshadowed by officiating decisions deemed unfair and questionab…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47162,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47160\/revisions\/47162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}