It was such a shameful thing that happened on Friday and partly Saturday at Stade Olympique de Rades in Tunisia in the CAF Champions League final between Esperance de Tunis and Wydad Casablanca.
Esperance de Tunis were crowned CAF Champions League winners after their opponents, Wydad Casablanca, refused to return to the field in protest of VAR not being implemented on a goal that was ruled out.
The controversial moment came in the 58th minute of the Champions League final second-leg clash, when Wydad midfielder Walid El Karti’s effort was ruled out.
This seems to be the situation:
– Wydad score a legitimate goal that is called OFFSIDE.
– Replays show the player was onside but theres no attempt to see VAR by referee Gassama
-Wydad refuse to continue without checking VAR replays.#CAFCL #CAFCLfinal pic.twitter.com/sGixo8KrvO— Ahmed Osman (@ahmz_osman) May 31, 2019
Gambian referee Bakari Gassama chose not to use video assistance to review the goal, which led to Wydad walking off the pitch and refusing to return.
After the game was halted for over an hour, Gassama declared Esperance the champions due to Wydad’s refusal to re-enter the pitch.
Many have since condemned the incident and concluded that the entire CAF officials are corrupt and do not deserve to lead the board anymore.
#CAFCLFinal irritating scenes….. What nonsense…. When will African football ever grow?…. Dose niggaz behaving like some immatured secondary school students…… pic.twitter.com/699gR3klgq
— Caleb (@odesolacaleb) May 31, 2019
The drama between @EsperanceSTunis and @WACofficiel where the match has been abandoned is exactly why African football will never go anywhere, shameful scenes. #CAFCLfinal #CAFCLFINAL pic.twitter.com/5oL97aMCxq
— Mutwiri Mutuota (@MutwiriMutuota) May 31, 2019
It was a shameful scene indeed with the fact that African Cup of Nation is just around the corner. Many have lost faith in the African football since this was not the first time for such a scene to be witnessed.
To make the feeling worse, it was for the second time in one campaign that the chaos were witnessed in the same place involving the same club.
In March, 2018, Gor Mahia were also subjected to the same chaos during the return match of the first round of Caf Champions League qualifiers.
The hosts won 1-0 to progress to the group stage.
In the ill-tempered match, Gor Mahia players and members of the team’s technical bench were mistreated in Tunisia as the partisan home crowd chanted chauvinistic slogans.
Gor coach Dylan Kerr, his assistant Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno, team manager Jolawi Abondo and goalkeeper trainer Willis Ochieng were all assaulted in the 90-minute melee.
After the match, the then Gor coach Dylan Kerr called it “the worst football game I have ever had to be part of.”
It was so unfortunate that the CAF officials allowed the same mistake to happen again. In fact, this showed that Africa still have a long way to go to attain the standard level of sportsmanship and fairness especially with the current board.