Ismail Elfath, the referee at the center of a controversial penalty awarded against Ghana in the World cup encounter with Portugal has broken his silence saying he regrets the episode.
As per Ismail Elfath, he used to play soccer with Ghanaians in the US in his neighborhood and holds nothing against the country. He says he regrets the uproar but he believes it was a penalty.
The Moroccan-American Referee has come under serious social media attacks after the penalty decision that handed 3 points to Portugal and sent Ronaldo into the top of FIFA World Cup records ahead of Pele and Maradona.
Many pundits around the world say Ismail Elfath’s penalty call was wrong while a third goal by Rafael Leao has come up strongly as a possible offside.
Regret
According to Sports Obama, Ghanaian Dr Joe K, formerly of Prempeh College caught up with the embattled referee in Qatar.
Ismail insisted it was a penalty. He said based on what he saw at that moment, it was a penalty.
If VAR thought otherwise, they would’ve called him. But they didn’t meaning it was correct.
He was kind of regretful. He said he used to play soccer with Ghanaians around his community in the USA. He didn’t expect this uproar though.
Source: MyNewsGh.com
