Reality TV personality Adekunle Olopade has weighed in on the Super Eagles’ semi-final defeat to Morocco, blaming the match officials rather than the players.

In a post on X, Adekunle argued that Nigeria was deprived of victory due to biased officiating by Ghana’s Daniel Laryea, highlighting several controversial calls, such as a yellow card shown to Calvin Bassey and missed fouls against Nigerian players.

He stood by the team’s effort, noting they had the advantage and created numerous scoring chances.

Adekunle urged supporters to consider the full scope of the game, beyond the penalty shootout, and criticised CAF for failing to address the refereeing concerns.

He wrote: “While Chukwueze’s performance was absolutely terrible, we simply cannot reduce the entire match to just a penalty shoot out.

“First of all, the game WASN’T EVEN SUPPOSED TO GET TO PENALTIES. If you didn’t watch the match from start to finish, please don’t involve yourself in this. Nigeria had so many chances, yes it was a tough game but we had the upper hand. The Super Eagles player were ready. Probably even the best form they’ve all been in a while and we were ready. The country was ready.

“But Daniel Laryea with his intentional and terrible officiating robbed us of that match. The ref was whistle-happy, Calvin Bassey did not deserve the yellow card, he stopped a lot of our plays that killed the momentum, ignored Morocco’s one too many fouls on the Nigerian players, and it was clear to see that they played favoritism to the host country.

“This isn’t about country or banter, maybe it influenced his decisions but THERE WERE TOO MANY WRONG CALLS ON THE SUPER EAGLES PART AND CAF SHOUDLN’T BE QUIET ABOUT IT.

“Yesterday’s match felt like it was Nigeria against the whole of Africa and sentiments aside, Nigeria was robbed off the win”.