CAF Champions League
DESPITE CAF RULING ON CHAMPIONS LEAGUE REPLAY, WAC TAKES CAF TO CAS
Moroccan club, Wydad Athletic Club (WAC) has announced that it will take the case of the arbitrary refereeing mistakes-which occurred during the second leg of the final of Africa’s Champions League, resulting in a win for Tunisian rival Esperance de Tunis (EST)- to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
According to Morocco World News, WAC’s protest over the absence of a Video Assistant Referee and the poor referee performances is supported by the Champions League regulations.
Gambian referee, Gassama Bakary, refused an alleged legitimate goal for Wydad Casablanca, angering Moroccan football fans and observers, who argued that the decision of the referee was unjust.
When Wydad players put pressure on the refereeing staff to use the VAR, the referees said that the video footage was unavailable due to technical issues.
The players subsequently refused to resume the game until the VAR issue has been fixed. WAC players were given no concrete reason why the VAR was not functional in such an important game.
According to Morocco World News, Paragraph 15 of Article 2 of the CAF regulations stipulates that “If it is established that the absence of the designated referees was the fault of the host association, the host team shall be declared the loser by 2 to zero and shall be eliminated from the competition, regardless of the result obtained on the field.”
The Moroccan club, that was playing at the Tunisian team’s home ground at Rades, may be declared winner as stipulated by the CAF regulations.
The regulations state that “if the referee is forced to stop the match before the end of the regular time because of pitch invasion or aggression against the visiting team, the host team shall be considered the loser and shall be eliminated from the competition.”
Despite CAF regulations being in favour of the Moroccan team, CAF decided instead to re-play the game causing backlash from both EST and WAC supporters.
CAF president, Ahmad, has said that the president of EST threatened him during the game.
Naciri went on to add that the CAF officials attempted to convince him to resume play in exchange for granting them next year’s title.
“All of them, without exception, were asking us to continue the game and next year’s title would be yours,” revealed Naciri in an interview with Medi1TV.
Naciri will now seek justice for his club by requesting to be declared winners without re-playing the 2nd leg of the African Champions League final in South Africa.
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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