Confederation of Africa Football Association (CAF) has suspended veteran referee Gehad Zaglol Grisha, 43, for a period of six months.
The suspension takes immediate effect after it was officially announced to the public on Tuesday, 28th May 2019.
The Egyptian, regarded as one of the best referees on the continent will thus miss the AFCON 2019 finals in his home country (He had been named among the referees to handle the tournament).
Grisha handled the first leg of the Total CAF Champions league final between Morocco’s Wydad Atheltic Club and Tunisian Esperance Fe Tunis that ended one goal apiece.
The Moroccoans complained officially to CAF after the game, casting the blame game to the referee for the way he handled the game.
Fousseny Coulibaly put the visitors into a 44th-minute lead, before they gave it up after Cheick Ibrahim Comara’s late equaliser in the 79th minute.
In a game full of incessant fouling and bickering, referee Grisha was forced to dish out four yellow cards in just the opening 45 minutes.
He also went to the VAR twice, the first time to rule out a goal for the hosts due to a handball in the build-up to the goal, before not awarding Wydad a penalty in the 57th minute after consulting the VAR.
A red card was also shown to Wydad’s midfielder Brahim Nakach after picking up two yellow cards in only five minutes.
This led the Moroccan giants to lodge a complaint to CAF against the Egyptian referee because of his poor decision making, highlighting his actions in the two VAR incidents.
About Grisha:
Grisha became a FIFA referee in 2008.
He has served as a referee at the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
He was also chosen to serve as a referee at 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Here is CAF’s full statement:
CAF Statement
Following the first of leg of the Total Champions League final match played on 24th may 2019 between Wydad Athletic Club (Morocco) and Esperance de Tunis, the referees committee of the Confederattion Africain de Football has decided to suspend Mr. Gehad Grisha for a period of six (06) months due to poor performance.
That is good if is suspended on factual truth ,referees are always making the sweet game bitter .The match officials must be paid and well motivated such that they are not bribed by these rich clubs mainly in northern part of the continent .