I Thought God Asked me To End the Match

Janny Sikazwe of Zambia ended a single match twice.

The Referee who was at the centre of the infamous match between Mali and Tunisia in Limbe, Cameroon, Janny SIkazwe has claimed in an interview that he suffered from heat-stroke during the match and would have died if the match did not end.

“I have seen people going for duties outside the country and coming back in casket. I was very close to coming back like that, I was lucky I didn’t go into coma, it would have been a very different story.

Tunisian Coach Mondhar Kebaier protesting against the decision.

“The doctors told me my body was not cooling down. It would have been just a little time before I would go into coma and that would have been the end. I think God told me to end the match, he saved me.” He explained.

Speaking to journalists in his country Zambia, he explained that the hot weather was a major contributing factor to his challenges. 

“The weather was so hot, and the humidity was about 85 percent. After the warm up I felt the conditions were something else. We were trying to drink water but you could not feel the water quenching you, nothing” he said.

But we (match officials) believe we are soldiers and we go and fight. Everything I was putting on was hot, even the communication equipment, I wanted to throw it away, it was so hot.

Backroom Staff joined the protest.

“I started getting confused, I could not hear anybody. I reached the point where I could start hearing some noise and I thought someone was communicating with me and the people were telling me ‘no you ended the match.’ it was a very strange situation.” He lamented.

I was going through my head to find out who told me to end the match, maybe I was talking to myself, I don’t know. That is how bad the situation was.” Sikazwe concluded. 

Sikazwe officiated in the last world cup