Belhadj to miss WC opener

Pompey player paying the price for African Nations dismissal

Last updated: 18th March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Belhadj to miss WC opener

Belhadj: Suspended for opening game

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Nadir Belhadj will miss Algeria's opening World Cup game against Slovenia after being given a two-match ban.

The Portsmouth winger has been punished by the Confederation of African Football for his red card against Egypt in the African Nations Cup semi-finals.

Belhadj has already served one match of the ban as he missed the third and fourth place play-off at the tournament in Angola.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi was banned for three games for headbutting referee Bonaventure Coffi Codjia during the same fiery encounter.

Chaouchi, who was not cautioned by Codjia at the time, was expected to be handed a much stiffer punishment for the incident, which followed the award of an Egypt penalty.

However, the disciplinary committee said there was no mention of the incident in either the referee's report or that of the match commissioner and the video evidence was inconclusive.

CAF have already indefinitely suspended referee Codjia for failing to take any action against Chaouchi for the incident.

Algeria's football federation were also fined $20,000 (£13,000). The team are drawn in Group C at the World Cup in South Africa and open their campaign against Slovenia on 13th June and also play England and USA.