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Football

05th Feb 2015

Farcical scenes as fans are forced to evacuate Africa Cup of Nations semi owing to crowd trouble

Ghana supporters escorted down tunnel

Conan Doherty

Ridiculous.

Dangerous crowd trouble disrupted tonight’s Africa Cup of Nations semi final between Ghana and host nation Equatorial Guinea after a section of the away support appeared to be under attack.

The game was brought to a complete halt for over half an hour owing to missiles being hurled in the stands.

On the 83rd minute, Ghana led Guinea 3-0 but the referee was forced to call a stop to the play when the away support were led behind one of the goals for their own protection

Bottles and other missiles were still being thrown in the direction of the Ghana supporters but, as stewards and police worked to evacuate a number of spectators, it was then believed that some of the Guinea supporters waited outside the stadium.

The Ghanaian fans were subsequently led down the match tunnel and escorted via an alternative exit and, as the drama continued, it was expected the referee would just award the game to Ghana who were three goals to the good. But, much to manager Avram Grant’s disdain, the officials looked to restart the play.

Feature

There was time for one last delay though when the police were supposed to have released tear gas in the stands and then, finally, when the game was restarted, both teams played three minutes of extra time, rather than going back to the 83rd minute when it was stopped.

Ghana eventually won and advanced to the final against Ivory Coast but more controversy surrounding the host nation.

 

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AfCON 2015