Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe says God told him to end the match because he wanted to save him from dying.
Sikazwe claims he blew the full-time whistle early in Mali’s controversial win over Tunisia because he was close to dying from heatstroke.
Referee Janny Sikazwe blew his full-time whistle early on two occasions even before the match got to the 90th minute mark.
Sikazwe first ended the match five minutes early and was forced to resume play
before he blew for full-time 13 seconds before the full 90 was up to Tunisia’s fury.
Sikazwe says his shambolic performance was a result of the intense Cameroon heat
The referee who blew for full-time early in Tunisia and Mali’s Africa Cup of Nations clash last month claims he could have died of heatstroke if the match had gone on any longer.
Tunisia, who were trailing 1-0 and playing against 10 men when Sikazwe ended the match early for a second time, were left incensed at Cameroon’s Limbe Stadium, with members of their coaching staff storming onto the pitch to confront the referee.
However, Sikazwe believes his erroneous decision to blow for full-time early was actually a blessing from god.
‘I have seen people going for duties outside the country and come back in a casket,’ he told reporters after arriving back in Zambia. ‘I was very close to coming back like that.
‘I was lucky I didn’t go into a coma. It would have been a very different story.
‘The doctors told me my body was not cooling down. It would have been just a little time before [I would have gone] into a coma, and that would have been the end”, he said.
‘I think God told me to end the match. He saved me.’
When confronted by Tunisia players and staff, Sikazwe stuck by his decision and had to be escorted off the field by security.
He was then ordered AFCON organisers to resume the match, yet Tunisia did not return to the pitch and Mali were declared winners.
Tunisia, after the gamed filed a complaint to the Confederation of African Football, which was subsequently rejected.
Sikazwe insists the blistering conditions explained his erratic performance in the game
Sikazwe insists the blistering conditions explained his erratic performance in the game
Sikazwe insists the extreme climate, which has seen some matches at the tournament played in temperatures of over 30C, explains his unusual performance on the day.
‘The weather was so hot, and the humidity was about 85 per cent,’ he continued.
‘After the warm-up I felt the [conditions] were something else. We were trying to drink water but you could not feel the water quenching you – nothing.
‘But we [match officials] believe we are soldiers and we go and fight.
‘Everything I was putting on was hot. Even the communication equipment, I wanted to throw it away. It was so hot”, he added.
