Ghana call for action against Equatorial Guinea after fan injuries
Ghana have called for stiff action against the African Cup of Nations hosts, Equatorial Guinea, after Ghanaian supporters were injured in attacks by home fans during Thursday's semi-final between the two countries.
"It's a pity that this dark cloud overshadows our success and we really need to see some stiff action taken by the Confederation of African Football," said Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the Ghana Football Association and who is also a senior Caf executive.
Caf will meet on Friday to discuss the incident, which follows swiftly after violent scenes at the weekend in which Tunisia players tried to attack a referee after they were eliminated by Equatorial Guinea in the quarter-final.
About 500 Ghanaians had flown from Accra on chartered planes to watch their team and were placed in a section on the side of the stadium, away from the rest of the 15,000-capacity crowd at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo. Home supporters aimed bottles at Ghana players and supporters, however, and the visiting team were forced to leave and re-enter the pitch under cover of riot police shields either side of half-time as the hosts went down 3-0. The game was halted again after 82 minutes and did not resume for another 40 minutes as the crowd was largely dispersed.
Related: Ghana 3-0 Equatorial Guinea | Africa Cup of Nations semi-final match report
Eventually the game was restarted in front of near-empty stands before the Gabonese referee, Eric Otogo, blew for full-time five minutes early.
The Ghanaians were then held back at the stadium for several hours while home supporters went on the rampage outside the stadium, upturning vendors' goods and placing concrete bolders on the road. The Ghanaians were eventually bused back to Malabo airport.
The Ghana coach Avram Grant praised his team's attitude, saying: "I spoke a lot to the players about mentality. One of the things that is important in sports and in life as well, is to recover after you lost a game.
"We spoke about what would happen if we win because we were in a tough group. They called our group the group of death, I call it the group of living."
Ghana now play Ivory Coast, who defeated Democratic Republic of Congo, in Sunday's final. "This is part of life, you need to look for a solution to pick yourselves up," Grant added.
"I was looking for this from players and they did it well, they picked themselves up and they showed Ghana that they could count on them."
Trouble was ignited shortly before half-time when Ghanawere awarded a penalty after 41 minutes, Jordan Ayew scoring after the Crystal Palace striker Kwesi Appiah had been fouled.
Equatorial Guinea contested Otogo's decision and were angered further when their attempts to restart
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