CAF Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin Tetteh

Gabon and Ghana played out a 1-1 draw at Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé on Friday, 14 January 2022, in the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021 — CAF's own disciplinary statement misdated the fixture as 13 January, but the match itself, and every contemporaneous report of it, confirms it was played the Friday. Ghana captain Andre Ayew had put Ghana ahead in the 18th minute, before Gabon's Jim Allevinah equalised in the 88th. Tension had built earlier in the second half after Ghana kicked the ball out of play so injured player Daniel-Kofi Kyereh could receive treatment; when play resumed, Gabon did not return possession as the usual sportsmanship convention dictates, and scored from that passage of play — a decision Ayew publicly criticised afterward as "small" of Gabon and one that left him "disappointed."

At the final whistle, a brawl broke out between the two sides. Ghana's Benjamin Tetteh threw a punch at Gabon forward Aaron Boupendza, then left the pitch for the changing rooms before the referee, Algerian official Lahlou Benbraham, could act. Benbraham used VAR to identify Tetteh's role in the incident and had Ghana's Thomas Partey bring him back out from the tunnel specifically to show him the red card.

CAF's Disciplinary Board met the following day, 15 January 2022, to review several incidents from the tournament together. On Tetteh, it suspended him for one additional match on top of the automatic two-match ban his red card already triggered, bringing his total suspension to three matches, and separately issued a stern warning to both teams over their unsportsmanlike conduct after the final whistle. In the same sitting, the Board fined Gabon USD 20,000 and declined a separate request from the Malian Football Federation to overturn a red card shown to their player Bilal Toure in an unrelated match against Tunisia on 12 January 2022.

The case illustrates the distinction CAF's disciplinary process draws between an automatic sanction that follows directly and mechanically from a referee's on-field decision, and a further, separately-reasoned sanction the Disciplinary Board can add after its own review of the underlying conduct — here bringing a two-match automatic ban to three matches in total.