The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has expelled Ismaily Sports Club from the 2018/19 CAF Champions League because of fans violence that led to their match day two group stage fixture against Cub Africain to be called off.
The home fans were not impressed with the centre referee Sidi Alioumu from Cameroon who awarded two quick penalties in five minutes to the Tunisians who were trailing 1-0.
In a statement released by CAF, the referee report says the home fans of Ismaily SC continuously threw stones and water bottles on the assistant referee and the visiting team specifically on the 86th minute while Club Africain’s team was attempting to take a corner kick.
It adds that, “After continuous failed attempts to restart play, it was decided to call off the match and both teams and officials escorted to the dressing rooms by the security personnel to avoid any harm caused by thrown objects from the fans.”
CAF’s verdict: After weighing the whole scenario according to the match officials account, CAF invoked Chapter XII paragraph 3 of the Champions League rules and regulations that states:
“If the referee is forced to stop the match before the end of the regular time because of invasion of the field or aggression against the visiting team, the host team shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated from the competition, without prejudice to the sanctions existing in the regulations.
If a team withdrawn after the start of the group matches without having played half of the group matches, the overall results of the matches in which the team is participated is cancelled.
Therefore CS Constantine from Algeria now leads the table with six points after two games as Club Africain and TP Mazembe reset to zero but with minus one and three goals that they conceded against the leaders.