CAF Champions League
CAF HAMMER FALLS ON EGYPTIAN REFEREE OF NIGERIA VS ZAMBIA & CAMEROON CLASHES
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
Gehad Grisha, an experienced Egyptian football referee who refereed the Nigeria 4-0 mauling of Cameroon two years ago has been slammed with a suspension.
He also
officiated the in the Nigeria-Zambia Afcon match which controversially ended
1-1 after Grisha awarded a penalty kick to Zambia.
The hammer has fallen on the referee for his performance in the CAF Champions League final match involving Morocco’s Wydad Athletic Club and Tunisia’s Esperance de Tunis at the weekend.
According to a press release by CAF, “the referees committee of the Confederattion Africain de Football has decided to suspend Mr. Gehad Grisha for a period of six months due to poor performance.”
The match ended 1-1. The Royal Moroccan Football Federation filed a complaint to CAF against the referee.
Fousseny Coulibaly put the visitors into a 44th-minute lead, before they gave it up after Cheick Ibrahim Comara’s late equaliser in the 79th minute.
In a game full of incessant fouling and bickering, Egyptian referee Gehad Grisha was forced to dish out four yellow cards in just the opening 45 minutes.
The 43-year-old referee also went to the VAR twice, the first time to rule out a goal for the hosts due to a handball in the build-up to the goal, before not awarding Wydad a penalty in the 57th minute after consulting the VAR.
A red card was also shown to Wydad’s midfielder Brahim Nakach after picking up two yellow cards in only five minutes.
This led the Moroccan giants to lodge a complaint to CAF against the Egyptian referee because of his poor decision making, highlighting his actions in the two
Grisha, a well-known face in Nigeria, officiated the 5-1 defeat of Rwanda’s Rayon Sports by Enyimba last year. He also officiated at the Russia 2018 World Cup. He took charge of the England 6-1 defeat of Panama.
He was the referee that awarded a controversial penalty kick against Nigeria in the 1-1 draw of a Group C Afcon 2013 duel at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) subsequently dispatched a strongly-warded protest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which ostensibly ruled in favour of the NFF and Grisha was sent home from the Afcon five years ago.
Nigeria’s sole survivor into the second round of the CAF Champions League, Enugu Rangers have crashed out of the competition. They lost 3-1 to Angola’s Sagrada Esperança this Sunday in Luanda.
The aggregate scoreline is 3-2 as Rangers last weekend won their home game 1-0. Sagrada Esperança opened the game with offensive and got their first goal barely six minutes into the game when Alexandre Fernando found the back of the net.
The hosts doubled their lead in the 33rd minute through Mussa. But four minutes later, Enugu Rangers reduced the tally to 2-1 to carry an away goal advantage into half time.
Jamie Pimpao got the much needed goal for Angola in the 67th minute to seal the hopes of Rangers.
Sagrada Esperança will now go into next month’s draw for the draw of the group stage.
CAF Champions League 2nd Preliminary Round action resumed on Saturday, 14 September following the resumption of the Africa’s premium club competition on Friday.
It was mostly the travelling teams that secured victories away from home on Saturday, who put themselves in fairly comfortable situations ahead of the return leg next week.
Orlando Pirates had a mental obstacle to overcome in Gaborone against Jwaneng Galaxy, having to face the same side that eliminated them in the same phase of the competition last season.
The former champions secured a 2-0 victory in Gaborone to put themselves in a comfortable position ahead of the return leg next weekend.
Five-time champions, TP Mazembe were away to Red Arrows in Zambia where they also put two past their hosts ahead of the return leg in Lubumbashi.
Mamelodi Sundowns, who played their away match in the comfort of their home stadium against Swaziland’s Mbabane Swallows made use of home ground advantage with a comfortable 4-0 win over their neighbours.
Tanzanian champions, Young Africans secured a hard-fought 1-0 win over CBE SA of Rwanda as Tanzanian giants continue to chase a continental title.
It was a rather tough outing for Moroccan outfit, AS FAR when they travelled to Sudan to face Al Merrikh. A highly entertaining encounter concluded with a 2-2 draw, ahead of the return leg in Morocco.
Egyptian side, Pyramids FC also played out to a draw when they were held 1-1 by APR FC in Rwanda.
Burkina Faso side, Association Sportive des Douanes out up an impressive showing when they edged Algeria’s CR Belouizdad by 1-0.
The first leg of the 2nd Preliminary Round concludes on Sunday, with five interesting encounters lined up, including reigning champions Al Ahly kick starting their title defense away from home.
TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Results & Fixtures:
Friday, 13 September
Enugu Rangers 1 – 0 Sagrada Esperanca
Monastir 0 – 1 MC Alger
Saturday, 14 September
CBE SA 0 – 1 Young Africans
Red Arrows 0 – 2 TP Mazembe
Al-Merrikh 2 – 2 AS FAR
Jwaneng Galaxy FC 0 – 2 Orlando Pirates FC
Maniema Union 2 – 1 Petro de Luanda
Djoliba 1 – 0 ASKO
Douanes 1 – 0 CR Belouizdad
Sunday, 15 September
12h00 GMT | Gor Mahia vs Al Ahly
15h00 GMT | Samartex vs Raja CA
16h00 GMT | San Pedro vs Al-Hilal
16h00 GMT | Dekedaha vs ES Tunis
19h00 GMT | Stade d’Abidjan vs Milo FC
The return leg fixtures of the 2nd Preliminary stage will be played between 20 – 22 September.
-CAF
Enugu Rangers’ patchy form in the CAF Champions League continues as they struggled to beat visiting Angola’s Sagrada Esperance 1-0 in the first leg match played at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
It was in similar fashion that they played against Union Sportive de Zilimadjou of Comoros Islands who they beat 2-1 over two legs in Uyo.
Rangers’ lone goal was scored by Kazeem Ogunleye in the 80th minute.
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