Cairo (Reuters) – A controversial touch from a referee, technology failure and a player walkoff resulted in a chaotic Egypt Cup game lasting nearly three and a half hours and concluding in the early hours of Monday morning.
The round of 16 tie between Enppi and Future FC at the former’s Petro Sport Stadium was deadlocked at 0-0 in the 57th minute when the ball came off referee Nader Qamar Al-Dawla and fell kindly for the visitors to take the lead.
Qamar Al-Dawla was summoned to consult VAR but a technical failure resulted in a delay of 17 minutes before he was able to deliver his decision to uphold the goal.
The Enppi players, who were convinced the referee’s intervention had prevented a defender from getting to the ball, were enraged and stormed off the pitch.
Play was suspended for 25 minutes before Enppi came back out to resume the match after the intervention of the club’s president and they managed to score an equaliser from a penalty kick in the 20th minute of stoppage time.
The match was then decided by penalty kicks with Enppi winning 6-5 to qualify for the quarter-finals at nearly 1 a.m.
(Reporting by Ahmed Mostafa and Shady Amir; Editing by Nick Mulvenney and Toby Chopra)
