Football: African Nations Cup final-Maillet involved in title decider |10 February 2006

The 37-year-old has been chosen as fourth official for the encounter which is to kick off at 8 p.m. Seychelles time in the Cairo stadium.

In Egypt, host of the 25th edition of the biennial championship, Maillet has refereed three matches. One of these games was the group A encounter between the two finalists - Egypt and Ivory Coast.

The Egyptians topped their pool after collecting a 3-1 win over World Cup qualifiers Ivory Coast 3-1 who fielded a second-string team.

Maillet’s first match in the competition was in group C where Tunisia took on Zambia. In the encounter, Brazil-born Francileudo dos Santos scored the second hat-trick of the competition as the Carthage Eagles beat Zambia 4-1 in Alexandria.

Voted Seychelles’ best football referee for the past five consecutive years, Maillet also took charge of the quarterfinal match between Tunisia and Nigeria. The Nigerians dethroned 2004 champions Tunisia on a penalty shoot-out (6-5) after the score had remained locked at 1-1 after normal and extra time.

Today’s match referee is Tunisian Daami Mourad who has officiated at the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, the FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria in 1999 and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games among other competitions.

The 42-year-old, who became an international referee in 1996, was banned for a year by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) in 2001 after he attended the chaotic African Champions’ League final in Ghana when he tried to persuade Tunisian club Esperance to abandon the match after crowd trouble.

The assistant referees are Malian Dante Dramane and Zambian Kenneth Chichenga.

Hosts Egypt are just one win away from a record fifth African Nations Cup title after they beat Senegal 2-1 in a riveting semifinal in Cairo on Tuesday, while the Elephants of Ivory Coast edged out Nigeria 1-0 in Alexandria on the same day.

Egypt will be without star striker Mido who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. The striker has been banned for six months from the Egypt national team after his extraordinary outburst at coach Hassan Shehata when he was replaced 10 minutes from the end in the game against Senegal with the score level at 1-1.

G. G.