Were DeMbare right?

nature of their victory over InterClube of Angola certainly gave weight to Dynamos’ protests that they were robbed in Algiers.
The Glamour Boys won the first leg of their first round tie 4-1 at Rufaro but crashed to a 0-3 defeat in Algiers in a match high on controversy in which two Dynamos players were sent off, a hotly-disputed penalty awarded to the hosts and a killer third goal scored in time added on.
Although the aggregate score was 4-4, MC Alger qualified on the away goals rule, thanks to a penalty they converted in the last minute of the first leg at Rufaro.
DeMbare’s loss marked the first time the Harare giants have crashed out of the Champions League in the first round since the began taking part in Africa’s flagship inter-club knockout tournament in 1981.
Lloyd Mutasa said it was the worst officiating he has seen both as a player and a coach while his skipper Des-mond Maringwa described it as a robbery.
Zifa Councillor Austin Chishanga claimed Caf were operating a shadowy syndicate that was fighting for the cause of North African teams.
The Glamour Boys blamed Egyptian referee Fahim Omar, for their loss in Algiers, and the match officials’ handling of that game will be one of a number of issues to be discussed by the Caf Inter-Clubs Competitions and Referees’ Committee at its meetings in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday.
“Caf Organising Committee for the Inter-Clubs Competitions, Executive Committee and Referees’ Committee will hold their respective meetings to examine, among other issues, reports on matches being played since the beginning of the year,” the continent’s football governing body said on its website yesterday.
The Caf Referees’ Committee cannot change the outcome of a match, even in the event that they establish that the match officials were biased and could have influenced the outcome of the game, but can only punish the match officials through a variety of sanctions available to the body.
The debate related to the events in Algiers, when Dynamos slumped to that 0-3 defeat, has certainly lost its intensity but the events in Algiers this weekend, when MC Alger qualified for the group stages, appeared to throw weight to DeMbare’s protests that they were robbed in Algeria.
For the second game running, MC Alger were given the benefit of playing the decisive second leg at home against a team from Southern Africa as Caf’s hidden hand in trying to influence the outcome of matches reared its ugly head once again.
Six of the eight teams with home second leg ties in the second round qualified for the group stages with only Club Africain of Tunisia, whose match against Al-Hilal was abandoned with the score tied 1-1 and the Tunisians facing elimination, and Senegalese side ASC Jaraaf, falling by the wayside.
Jaraaf faced Mission Impossible after having lost the away leg 0-5 to Esperance in Tunisia and a 0-1 defeat at home sealed a comprehensive 0-6 aggregate defeat.
MC Alger, winners of the tournament in 1976, had staged one of the greatest comeback shows in erasing a 1-4 first leg loss to beat Dynamos 3-0 in Algiers and go through on the away goals rule.
DeMbare cried foul but their protests were ignored by Caf and the Glamour Boys were instead slapped with a US$5 000 fine for the wild behaviour of their players.
MC Alger held InterClube of Angola 1-1 in Luanda but the real drama only happened in the second leg in Algiers.
Twice the Algerians took the lead through Youssed Sofiane and Abdlemalek Mokdad but twice the brave Angolans, who trailed 1-2 at the break, fought back to level the tie through captain Pedro Henriques and Antonio.
With just two minutes left in regulation time, and the score tied at 2-2 and aggregate level at 3-3, MC Alger were starring elimination in their face on the same away goals rule they had used to beat Dynamos.
But strange things have been known to happen in North Africa.
And, just on cue, the Algerians were awarded a penalty, which they converted, to win the tie 3-2 and advance 4-3 on aggregate.
While MC Alger have scored just two goals, including a penalty, on their travels in the last two round, they have six goals at home, including two penalties, at home and their winner in the first round came in time added on and, in the second round, the winning goal came with two minute left via a penalty.
The events in Algiers at the weekend also meant that MC Alger have now been awarded penalties in three of the four matches they have played in this year’s Champions League. They were awarded two penalties against Dynamos (in Harare and in Algiers) and a penalty against InterClube of Angola at the weekend.
Cote d’Ivoire giants ASEC Mimosas, forced once again to play a one-off game because of the tricky security situation in their country, appeared to be cruising into the group stages as they led through Adama Bakayoko against Raja Casablanca in Morocco.
But, in the final minute of the game, the home team were awarded a penalty converted by Mohsine Moutouali to level the scores at 1-1 and force the game into a penalty shootout.
ASEC, who needed the penalty shootout to eliminate Motor Action in the first round at Rufaro, lost the lottery 4-5.