At a time when SA football can do with a positive story, it was yet another heartbreak for Mamelodi Sundowns when Wydad Casablanca denied them passage to the CAF Champions League final on Saturday.
Sundowns have carried SA’s aspirations in this continental competition for the past five years, and just when we thought they would get over the line, they fell short yet again after the Moroccan club beat them on the away goals rule at Loftus Versfeld.
The heartache was even more severe because Sundowns didn’t really lose – they drew 2-2 with Wydad and by virtue of failing to score in the first-leg last weekend in Casablanca, the SA team were eliminated.
Such a result is likely to fuel debates around why the continent’s football governing body, CAF, is still stuck in the away goals rule when its counterparts elsewhere have done away with it. Uefa set the pace when, at the beginning of this season, it expunged that rule which gives unfair advantage to visiting teams, as was the case with Wydad on Saturday, as they progressed purely because they scored twice, not for winning.
As we head into off-season, perhaps we should make this call to CAF president Patrice Motsepe, for whom the heartbreak must have been even worse, and his executive to seek to bring the continental governing body in line with world trends.
CAF remains stuck in the past – they still use head-to-head in qualifying and it took them forever to introduce VAR (video assistant referee) and even then, it is only available from the quarter-final stage of their competitions.
But when such rules seem a bit unfair shouldn’t they be done away with? Sundowns didn’t lose a single game throughout this season’s CAF campaign, winning eight of their 12 matches, yet they can’t be in the final because they played two draws: one 0-0 away and another 2-2 at home. It seems like robbery to us, especially as we recently saw Uefa Champions league games that ended in ties go to extra time and penalties.
Sundowns and Marumo Gallants – who also reached the CAF Confederation Cup semis – did the nation proud. While Gallants were unfortunately relegated over the weekend, Sundowns will again carry the SA flag alongside Orlando Pirates in the Champions League, and SuperSport United and Sekhukhune United in the Confed.
We wish them good luck but hope by the time they kick off the new season, CAF would have aligned their relic rules with commonsense.
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