Ghanaian referee Daniel Nii Laryea has reacted to the backlash he received over ‘biased’ officiating during Wednesday’s AFCON 2025 semi-final clash between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Morocco in Rabat on Wednesday night.
After 90 minutes and extra-time finished goalless Morocco went on to win 4-2 on penalty shootout.
However, Laryea was at the end of heavy criticism with many Nigeria fans accusing him of making calls that favoured Morocco.
Among his decisions that was questioned was the call he made against Calvin Bassey which he went ahead to issue him a yellow card.
The caution meant Bassey was rules out of the final if the Super Eagles had made it through.
Super Eagles duo Akor Adams and Bright Osayi-Samuel also made their feelings known after the match, with the latter describing the referee’s performance as appalling.
Also Read: Chelle: NFF Will Decide My Future
Reacting to the criticism Laryea said on Sporty TV:”No, it’s okay. It’s football.”
Nigerians are not the only ones who have expressed disappointment in what they perceived as poor officiating.
After the round of 16 clash between the Super Eagles and Algeria, the football federation of the North African country sent complaints to CAF and FIFA, over poor officiating.
10 Comments
Football is what it is. We cannot continue using football as a blanket to cover our evil intentions.. Its obvious Nigeria lost due to 2 factors(1). Poor officiating and (2) absence of Ndidi.
Was it the yellow card on bassey that made chukwueze not to score that pk?
Cos I dont understand…
Perhaps without Bassey’s unwarranted Yellow Carding and false free kick, near the SE box, awarded Morocco by the fake Ghanaian referee early in first half putting our boys in panic, fear and nervousness that they had no hope of beating Morocco- the game wouldn’t have gotten to Chukwueze coming into the pitch in the 118mins, let alone taking his very poor kick.
Some of you defending the pathetic Ghana referee put in by CAF upon Morocco’s insistence as replacement for the original Egypt/Algeria team of referees don’t understand the effect of officiating shacklement and demoralising effect a biased refereeing can have on the team on the receiving end of bad decisions.
Not only was Morocco playing with the 12th man with the massive and intimidating home crowd, but the refereeing team made it a 13th man team for Morocco against 11 proud SE of Nigeria.
Our boy’s couldn’t play their normal game – as we saw against Tunisia and even Algeria in the qtr final, not because the Morrocan team were that fantastic and superior but because the Ghanaian referee set out to shackle them with very dubious decisions right from kick off putting them in fear and nervous mode throughout the 120 minutes of regulation and extra time.
NFF should have raised the red flag the moment Morocco preferred the Ghanaian referee and South African VAR Assistant because these people are so hate-filled and envious of Nigeria that they would do everything to help opposition to crush Nigeria. Instead Gusau was blabbing about “it will be a level playing field” against Morocco on Wednesday- instead of playing Football politics appropriate.
Same way South Africa rigged their WCQ, playing 7 home matches and Gusau and his rudderless NFF did nothing about it.
The only person that was shackled on Wednesday night was Eric Chelle.
While it took DRC 20 minutes to shakle him, it took Regragui only 15….LMAOooo.
The officiating must have also affected his ability to be tactically fluid.
In a match were we had only 1 shot at goal in 120 minutes and never created any meaningful chance afterwards, blaming the ref is the height of hypocrisy.
Remember what y’all said to the Algerians after they aired their own “ref greviances”…..y’all told them to shut up as they have no right to complain when they never had a shot on target the whole game.
So y’all to should shut up, lick your wounds quietly and move on.
You are wrong, Tony.
Senegal will put to shreds your points. I believe the team were fatigued more than ref bias.
The coach had first said he would use first half to conserve energy and go blazing in the second half.
But after seeing the turnaround time of recovery between the quarter finals and semi finals as well as the travel plans too (eagles boarded a bus for 4 hours to Rabat), I knew it was fatigue.
They even managed it well by holding Morocco.
Morocco had played all their matches in Rabat.
Senegal played all their matches in Tangier, yes, all 6 matches.
So the final will be firmly balanced. The most settled teams are confronting each other.
Ref or no ref, Senegal will show Nigeria how to face the host nation with physicality to boot.
That is why they are in the third final out of the last 4 editions.
Only 2 coaches since 2019 when they lost to Algeria in the final. Nigeria have had 6 coaches during the same period.
We should have a setup that is stable just like Morocco. No wonder they have been number one since 2022 and Senegal, number 2 on the continent
Eagles (thankfully many in the current squad won silver in 2023) should aim to win bronze and match or surpass CIV most goals haul in one afcon (16) against Egypt tomorrow.
Then, they should aim for gold in either or both 2027 and 2028. This generation should petter out after 2028.
The main issue here is that you made too many wrong calls and that might affect your career cuz you messed with wrong country. You will be dragged to the point that FIFA might not consider you for Wcup matches.
By the way, Nigerian referees are too pathetic !
I can’t even remember the last time a Nigerian referee got selected for AFCON.
We need to restructure our football.
2006! 20 years ago.
You all shd free the ref. I beg, he wasn’t the reason all our back 5 got above 7.5 rating while non of our midfielders to strikers got a 7 rating, onyedika, osimhen and akor with the lowest ranking.
One thing I know for sure is that we won 2013 afcon due to onanzi and mikel combo, plus Victor Moses performance.
These three guys help solidify the team. The ivory coast team Nigeria defeated at the quarter final of that tournament is still the best till date.
This mikel Onanzi combo like is what we are missing with present eagles and iwobi Ndidi combo has not and will never be able to achive this plus Victor Moses which ademola
lookman and chukwueze doesn’t come close to. Though with no disrespect to Ademola lookman achievement for super eagels.
Give me players that can truly replicate these three guys, I will show you a solid se team.
A lot of you are not well traveled that is why you don’t understand the hatred Ghanaians have against Nigeria. That is why i will not go into debate with ignorant people. Sometimes silence is better than proving a point to people that will live to learn by experience. Just take your family and live in Ghana as Nigerians and you’ll live to tell the tales since some of you claims to know more than those who have ties with Ghana.