An Egyptian referee has been suspended indefinitely after using a mobile phone before disallowing a goal in a second division match last week, the Egyptian Football Association said.
With the video assistant referee (VAR) system not in use in second-tier games, referee Mohamed Farouk used a crowd member’s phone to watch a replay of a goal during the match between Suez and Al-Nasr.
Al-Nasr thought they had scored a late equalizer, but the hosts protested a handball, and after much time reviewing the video on the phone, the referee decided to rule it out.
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A soccer ball rests on a yellow line on a soccer field. The Egyptian Football Association has suspended a referee who used a crowd member’s phone to review a goal in a match between Suez and Al-Nasr. (GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Egyptian FA said in a statement that Portugal’s Vitor Pereira, who replaced England’s Mark Clattenburg as head of the Referees Committee, had decided to suspend the entire refereeing body for an «indefinite period.»
«The Committee decided to investigate the incident when Mohamed Farouk, the referee of the match, used a mobile phone to review one of the images of the match events,» the Egyptian FA added.
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Fifteen minutes of injury time were added and Suez won the game 3-1.
Farouk left the field of play with police protection, amid protests from Al-Nasr players and managers, who threatened to take legal action against the referee for violating the regulations.