Dirty Champs League

the Caf Champions League and doesn’t illuminate Africa’s premier inter-club competition anymore.

The Glamour Boys have been crying, for some time now, that the playing field in the Caf Champions League is not level and their campaign, in the tournament, is being hampered by a fatal combination of hostile match officials and ill-treatment from their North African hosts.

However, DeMbare’s protests, which include an official letter lodged with the Caf leadership two years ago, have been largely ignored or dismissed as the inevitable dying cry of a fallen giant that has terribly lost its way on the continent after scaling dizzy heights in 1998.

But a cocktail of wild events in Lubumbashi on Sunday threw the spotlight firmly on aggressive, and often dubious, tactics that are now regularly employed by host teams to throw their guests off balance and gain an unfair advantage in the Caf Champions League.

Former African champions, Orlando Pirates, were given a ride from hell as TP Mazembe employed all dirty tactics in the book in an ultimately futile bid to overturn a 1-3 first leg loss and advance to the group stages of Africa’s flagship inter-club football tournament.

Captain Lucky Lekgwathi was sent off in questionable circumstances, virtually all the calls made by the match officials went in the home side’s favour and TP Mazembe, who needed a 2-0 win to go through on away goals rule, were handed two dubious penalties, including one in the 88th minute, which were both saved by ‘keeper Senzo Meyiwa.

The SABC crew who arrived in Lubumbashi for a live coverage of the match had their equipment confiscated, together with their mobile sim cards, while two members of that travelling party were detained, and reports of the suspension of the live broadcast on Congolese radio and television once TP Mazembe had scored, all painted an ugly picture of a match made in hell.

Pirates’ coach Roger De Sa said in almost three decades in the game he has never seen anything like what he saw in Lubumbashi and was left wondering whether it was worthwhile to remain in the trenches of football or walk away from a game that he feels is increasingly turning into a shame.

De Sa said he felt only God could have helped them qualify, under those conditions, because mere mortals were not capable of coming out with a positive result in such a match.

Midfielder Lehlohonolo Masalesa told the club’s official website, www.orlandopiratesfc.com, that this was the worst experience of his football career.

“Throughout the match, we only got one shot at goal. No fouls were given to us inside Mazembe’s half. We got no corner kicks whatsoever — nothing went our way — it was just crazy — it was not a good game,” he said.

“We were scared for our lives after the match. The fans of Mazembe started burning cars outside the stadium . . . we could not understand that.”

Yesterday, DeMbare legend Maringwa said what happened in Lubumbashi was something that they have repeatedly faced in North Africa and while their cries that there was foul play in the Champions League had fallen on deaf ears, it had to happen to Orlando Pirates, with their bigger profile, for the world to start taking notice.

Maringwa, who retired from a professional career that was plagued by injury and now concentrates on his role as Footballers Association of Zimbabwe president, was part of the DeMbare team that crashed to a controversial 0-3 defeat at the hands of MC Alger in Algiers in a Champions League tie two years ago.

Dynamos had powered to a 4-1 win, in the first leg at Rufaro, but their hosts employed all sorts of dirty tactics and received a big helping hand from Egyptian referee Fahim Omar to help them overturn the deficit and get the 3-0 victory they needed, with the crucial third goal coming in time added on, to qualify on away goals rule.

Maringwa told The Herald that as he followed the developing story of what happened to Pirates in Lubumbashi, he was getting a feeling that this was virtually the same story that happened to them in Algiers in April 2011, and the only difference was that the Soweto giants managed to weather the storm, thanks to an incredible performance by their ‘keeper.

MC Alger’s first goal, which can be viewed on YouTube, was scored from an off-side position, with the forward miles inside enemy lines, their second goal, from a penalty, came after Archford Gutu was punished for a foul he never committed and was also sent off in the process.

Guthrie Zhokinyi followed him to the sidelines and Omar gave the home team 36 free-kicks, an incredible statistic in just one match, while only one went to the visitors.

“We were given a raw deal in Algeria and the referee had a big role to play in the outcome of the match and we complained and made a lot of noise about it but some people didn’t take us seriously with others saying that we were bad losers when, in fact, we had a good case,” said Maringwa.

“It had been happening to us for some time whenever we travelled but I think the worst was in Algeria and it had a huge impact on some of our players, who were young and were playing in the tournament for the first time, because they had never seen anything like that in their lives.

“Everything was going against us all the time and it had a huge effect on our young players because it’s something they were not used to since they were playing at this level for the time, and facing such things for the first time, and they never recovered and we lost.

“It was very bad and we complained but no one listened and some people even dismissed us as bad losers but those who were there knew that we had been given a raw deal and it’s sad because the other team progressed to the next round and we were knocked out.

“Now that it has happened to Pirates, and there were things that were done to the South African journalists, it’s interesting that you read some of the reports and it appears as if this is the first time these things are happening, which is not correct because we have been victims on a number of times before.”

Maringwa said as long as Zimbabwe did not have a representative, in the corridors of power in Caf, local representative football clubs, and even the national team, will continue to get a raw deal on their travels around Africa.

“It’s about having influence in Caf and you need to have people who represent your interests and make a lot of noise when you complain and that is the only way that your cases can be heard and, with time, they know that if they do that to you they get into trouble,” said Maringwa.

“I also believe that our own association also needed to have raised these issues now and again and made a lot of noise about it because when we are playing in the Champions League it’s not about Dynamos but about Zimbabwe and it’s out national flag that we are flying.

“I’m sure Zifa could have done more, in terms of representing us when we were making all that noise about being given a raw deal, but that doesn’t matter now because I’m sure what happened in Lubumbashi, and all the negative stuff it has created, could be a game changer.

“We were victims, for a very long time, but maybe that is the way life is, that some have to suffer so that things can get better in the future.”

Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza, who is also the boss of the South African Premier Soccer League and sits on the Caf inter-club committee, said while what happened in Lubumbashi was not acceptable, South Africa should not retaliate by ill-treating visiting teams.

“We cannot do that (ill-treat) because as South Africans we must do what is right. Two wrongs cannot make a right,” Khoza told KickOff.

“Football is all about Fair Play and Fair Play maintains that we must do things correctly. Fifa has established an Ethics Committee that we also have at CAF and PSL that requires of us to uphold fairness in sport that is acceptable internationally.”