Meet Janny Sikazwe: The Bizarre Referee of AFCON 2021, The Man Who Made Bad Name Overnight

 

What Happened? 

Referee Janny Sikazwe twice blew for full-time before the end of 90 minutes, with Tunisia refusing to restart the match out of protest

What Did He Do?

 The Africa Cup of Nations match between Mali and Tunisia descended into chaos and ended in confusion after the referee twice blew for full-time before the 90 minutes had been played.

In a bizarre series of events, referee Janny Sikazwe blew for full-time on 85 minutes, with Mali leading 1-0 and Tunisia chasing a late equaliser. The game was then resumed, only for the Zambnian official to signal full-time again, 20 seconds before the 90-minute mark.

There was then more confusion as Mali returned to the pitch almost 30 minutes after Sikazwe’s second full-time whistle, apparently in anticipation of the match being restarted again.

However, Tunisia refused to return to the field and Mali were declared 1-0 winners in the Group F fixture.

Tunisia had been left furious as they were expecting for there to be a significant amount of additional time. The match had been stopped on several occasions, including for drinks breaks and VAR reviews.

What May Have Gone Wrong? 

What's on the referee's mind? Maybe, his wrist watch went bad...or maybe, he has a date and running late. Your guess is as good as mine. 

Who is Janny Sikazwe?

Janny Sikazwe is a football referee from Zambia. Born on May 26, 1979, Sikazwe is one of the most senior referees from the African country, having been a FIFA international referee since 2007.

He boasts a wealth of experience and has taken charge of a number of high profile games in different competitions, both at club and international level.

Among the tournaments Sikazwe has refereed at are the CAF Champions League, the FIFA Club World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup.

A trained teacher, he made a breakthrough as a referee in 2008 when he replaced one who had taken ill at a CAF Under-20 Championship. Since then, his career has been on an upward trajectory.

A referee at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, Sikazwe went on to officiate the 2016 Club World Cup final between Real Madrid and Kashima Antlers and the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations final between Cameroon and Egypt.

He became the first ever Zambian referee to take charge of a game at a World Cup, controlling the whistle in two World Cup 2018 group games - Belgium vs Panama and Japan vs Poland.

As his CV suggests, Sikazwe is highly regarded by his peers and one of his former mentors even suggested that he had the ability to referee a World Cup final.

A Review of Janny Sikazwe's Integrity

He was provisionally suspended by CAF in November 2018 following allegations of corruption during a CAF Champions League game between Esperance and Primiero Agosto, but the suspension was lifted in January 2019 when he was cleared in a disciplinary hearing.

Sikazwe later found himself in the middle of controversy at Afcon 2021, when he twice blew for full time too early.