Guinea has called on CAF to take action against Tanzania, claiming irregularities in their decisive Africa Cup of Nations 2025 qualifying match, which ended Guinea's hopes of booking a spot in the tournament.
Guinea needed just a draw against Tanzania in their final Group H qualifier to seal their place at AFCON 2025. However, a 61st-minute strike from Simon Msuva handed Tanzania a 1-0 victory, breaking Guinean hearts and sending the Taifa Stars to Morocco.
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The post-match focus, meanwhile, quickly shifted to off-field matters after the Guinean Football Federation (Feguifoot) lodged a formal complaint against Tanzania for allegedly fielding an ineligible player.
Feguifoot's complaint is anchored on Article article 43.5 of the AFCON regulations.
In an official statement, the Federation alleged that in the 73rd minute of the match, Tanzania introduced a player wearing the jersey number 26 – a number not listed on the official match sheet.
It further claimed that the jersey bore no name, making it impossible to verify the player's identity.
They also invoked Article 42.12, which states that any team using an ineligible player should forfeit the match by a 3–0 margin.
Feguifoot also cited Article 47: "For any administrative error in the registration of players, the national association concerned will be suspended from participation in the following edition of the CAN, and its team will be eliminated from the competition if the latter is still in progress."
The country's football body demanded that CAF declare Guinea the 3–0 winners of the match or alternatively expel Tanzania from the tournament.
The federation also accused the match commissioner, Francis Oliele of Kenya, of obstructing their right to lodge a complaint immediately after the match.
"Furthermore, the Guinean Football Federation reported the inexplicable behavior of the Kenyan match commissioner, Mr. Francis Oliele, who denied Guinea the right to make any claim at the end of the match, in defiance of the CAN regulations," the statement read.
"He went so far as to ask Guinean officials to go to CAF instead and not to him. It took the dexterity of our Secretary General and the captain of our team for him to give in to accepting our complaint against his will, after an injunction from a Head of the CAF Competitions Division.
"This behaviour of this official denotes that it is unfair that the Match Commissioner and the Security Officer are all from Kenya, a country with which they are all members of the same CECAFA Zonal Union."
The federation criticised CAF for changing the kick-off time from 7pm local time to 4pm just 48 hours before the game, citing lighting issues at the venue.
"This change in the kick-off time to 1 p.m. GMT, or 4 p.m. local time, affected the integrity, fairness and sincerity of the match result since it caused enormous damage to our preparation program for the very important match which should determine the country qualified for the next CAN in Morocco," the statement added.
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With Guinea's exclusion from AFCON 2025 hanging in the balance, the federation has urged fans and stakeholders to remain calm while awaiting CAF's decision.