There have been more farcical scenes at the Africa Cup of Nations which is being held in Cameroon as the wrong national anthem was played three times for Mauritania ahead of their match against Gambia at Limbe Stadium.
Incredibly, the Mauritania team were then asked to sing their national anthem without any music due to a technical problem with the sound system. Didier Gomes Da Rosa’s side had lined up before kick-off to hear the national anthems but officials played the wrong one several times and captain Aboubakar Kamara could be seen shaking his head in disbelief. Gambia won 1-0 to go joint-top of Group F.
Big blunder
It is the second major blunder of the competition and it happened on the exact same day following some shocking refereeing during Mali’s controversial 1-0 victory over Tunisia where referee Janny Sikazwe not only awarded two controversial penalties and a very questionable red card but incredibly he ended the game early, twice.
He first blew up on the 85th minute to signal for full time before allowing the match to continue and then blew his whistle once again with the match inside the 89th minute. Due to all the stoppages during the game there would have been several minutes of injury time to be added on but he ignored that and his decision enraged Tunisia officials who stormed onto the pitch to remonstrate. He needed security officers to protect him as he walked off the pitch.
