Almost 77 000 tickets sold for Afcon showdown

A total of 76 940 tickets have been sold for the Africa Cup of Nations final on Sunday, CAF general secretary Hicham El Amrani has said.

“We left 2 000 empty seats for security purposes,” he said.

The venue can accommodate up to 90 000 fans.

Nigeria will meet Burkina Faso in an all-West African clash at the National Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday. The match kicks off at 8pm.

El Amrani also conceded that the continental football governing body was “not happy about the level of refereeing”.

This followed the handling of the semifinal match between Ghana and Burkina Faso on Wednesday by Tunisian referee Slim Jadidi.

He has been suspended, El Amrani revealed at the press conference.

He said the organising committee would meet tomorrow where “the decisions will be taken”.

El Amrani was referring to the incident where Burkina Faso midfielder Jonathan Pitriopa was red-carded during the Stallions’ 4-3 penalty win over the Black Stars.

The Burkinabe football federation has lodged a formal appeal with CAF to have the decision overturned.

Jadidi ejected Pitriopa for a second yellow card when in fact the referee should have awarded him a penalty after the player was tripped inside the box.

However, El Amrani emphasised that the organising committee did not have the powers to make the call to rescind Pitriopa’s unfair dismissal.

“We have the referees committee in place and the organising committee does no have the power over match officials.”

The closing ceremony will start at 6.30pm on Sunday.