CAF Champions League

CAS quashes CAF decision to replay Champions League final


Esperance de Tunis players hold up the trophy after winning the second leg of their 2019 CAF Champions league final match against Morocco's Wydad Athletic Club at the Olympic Stadium in Rades on May 31, 2019. PHOTO | FETHI BELAID |  AFP
Esperance de Tunis players hold up the trophy after winning the second leg of their 2019 CAF Champions league final match against Morocco's Wydad Athletic Club at the Olympic Stadium in Rades on May 31, 2019. PHOTO | FETHI BELAID | AFP

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CAF last month ordered the second leg to be replayed at a neutral venue following the Africa Cup of Nations after Moroccan side Wydad walked off an hour into the return fixture in Tunis when a VAR malfunction meant a disallowed equaliser could not be reviewed | Both clubs subsequently lodged appeals with CAS

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Wednesday overruled an African Football Confederation decision to replay the abandoned Champions League final between Esperance and Wydad Casablanca.

CAF last month ordered the second leg to be replayed at a neutral venue following the Africa Cup of Nations after Moroccan side Wydad walked off an hour into the return fixture in Tunis when a VAR malfunction meant a disallowed equaliser could not be reviewed.

Tunisia's Esperance, who led 2-1 overall at the time, were initially handed the title, but CAF later backtracked after determining that "playing and security conditions were not met". Both clubs subsequently lodged appeals with CAS.

But CAS on Wednesday ruled that the executive committee of CAF "did not have jurisdiction" to order that the game be replayed.

CAS said it was now up to "competent CAF authorities", without giving further details, to "order the appropriate disciplinary sanctions, if any, and accordingly to decide whether the second leg... shall be replayed or not".
Requests by Wydad to be named champions and granted the winners' paycheck were rejected, with CAS adding that Esperance's appeal would be investigated at a later date.