Eight days after publishing the FIFA responsewho opposed a end of inadmissibility to his complaint filed to contest “scandalous arbitration» by Bakary Gassama during the second leg of the 2022 World Cup against Cameroon (1-2, ap), the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) puts the dots on the i. This Saturday evening, the body published a long press release in which it details its entire approach and makes several updates.
First, the court explains that it called upon a “specialized and reputable agency“, who carried out an expertise on the refereeing of the match and concluded that it was “suspect“. The FAF specifies that it transmitted this expert report in the file sent to FIFA. The authority adds that, following its appeal before the commission d’arbitrageshe closed her initial request to the Disciplinary Committee and therefore we should not expect a response from this body.
Second, the FAF published the full answer of FIFA dated May 6 to put an end to rumors indicating that the world body had responded through a letter of several pages. We thus discover that FIFA was indeed satisfied with a laconic response.
The FAF contacted FIFA again
The FAF adds above all that, following this insufficient response in its eyes, it contacted FIFA again on May 7 to ask for clarifications. “Considering that the complaint file is heavy and significant through the attached videos and above all the expertise of a specialized agency, the Algerian Football Federation reiterated its request to the FIFA Referees Committee on Saturday May 7, 2022 by email (Ref. N°557/SG/FAF/2022) for clarification, in particular with regard to: ‘The refereeing of the match which was at no time mentioned in FIFA’s response, while the FAF’s claim refers to situations deemed contentious and for which the federal authority would have liked clear and precise answers’. Also, the FIFA Referees Committee does not mention whether the chief referee correctly applied the Laws of the Game and respected the video assistance protocol for refereeing outlined in this same email.»
The body also claimsaccess to recorded audio communications between the referee and other referees» et «the conclusions of the examination, of all the “incidents”, carried out by the two VAR referees, in accordance with the Laws of the Game and the video assistance protocol for arbitration.“These requests are unlikely to succeed and we can think that FIFA will stick to its response of May 6…
Finally, the FAF repeated that its appeal concerns only the technical part and that it has no concrete evidence supporting the suspicions of corruption relayed on social networks. “Apart from the technical elements in its possession and which it has introduced, including videos and the expert report, the Algerian Football Federation has never received the slightest document or any other material proof (under any support) from a third party in order to include it in their complaint file“, thus concludes the instance.
The press release from the FAF
