Esperance and Sundowns fans Esperance supporters clash with Mamelodi Sundowns fans during the first leg of the CAF Champions League quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld this week. Photo: ITUMELENG ENGLISH, Independent Media
Image: Itumeleng English, Independent Media
Comment by Herman Gibbs
The Confederation of African Football must act urgently and decisively following crowd violence during Tuesday’s match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Esperance Sportive de Tunis at Loftus in Pretoria.
The Tunisian club has a troubling history of supporter misconduct over the years. Early signs are that CAF may enforce a closed-door policy for next week’s return fixture, when Esperance host Sundowns in Tunisia.
It was an approach CAF previously adopted for matches after the games were plagued by violence from Esperance supporters.
In March 2022, the Disciplinary Board of the Confederation of African Football ordered Esperance to host their next two matches behind closed doors.
The CAF statement at the time referred to an offence in the previous season, and the two-match ban and $20,000 fine were for the unacceptable and recurrent behaviour of their supporters.
The statement referred to sanctions for offence during the CAF Champions League 2020/2021 semi-final against Al Ahly of Egypt.
The “recurrent” behaviour would also have reflected on the host of sanctions imposed on Esperance following incidents during their March 2020 encounter against Zamalek in the Champions League.
However, this time, Esperance officials and players were found guilty of aggressive behaviour towards the match officials, the use of offensive words at match officials, the use of offensive language and threats, spitting on the match officials and the use of flares by Esperance supporters.
With this track record, Esperance can rightly be classified serial offender.
It therefore came as a shock when the Tunisian formally announced that they had complained about the crowd violence at Loftus Versfeld on Tuesday.
Several hundred Esperance supporters pitched for the Champions League clash against Sundowns.
It would seem the Brazilians were unprepared for the huge turn-out of Esperance supporters, who have a history of crowd violence.
The security and police could not deal adequately with the disturbances, and mayhem followed.
This holier-than-thou attitude adopted by Esperance is ludicrous.
This pre-emptive move has raised eyebrows across the continent’s football community, and one journalist was moved to say Esperance’s complaint has “shaken the foundations of African football”.
Esperance prefaced their complaint to CAF with a statement which in part read: “We confirm we are preparing a complete file containing all the documents and supports that benefit our fans, who are exposed to violence in Pretoria, and will send it to the African Football Confederation.”
On Thursday, Sundowns also issued a statement which in part read: “Esperance de Tunis is a respected sports institution in Africa, and we trust that once all the evidence is reviewed, our brothers and sisters at Esperance will also denounce this behaviour, and take the necessary steps to ensure that the next encounter is one where all supporters feel safe and welcome.
“We are confident that the (CAF) investigation will identify the circumstances that gave rise to the unruly behaviour.”
Esperance’s decision to approach CAF ahead of schedule is a strategic effort to soften the likely implications for the return match in Tunisia next week.
The game will be played on Tuesday at the 60,000-seater Hammadi Agrebi Stadium in Rades, Esperance’s home venue.
Early indications are that CAF will decide that the match will be played behind closed doors.
In the past, security and even riot police have been unable to prevent Esperance supporters from disrupting matches.
The closed-door option would be the best way to address safety concerns and ensure all clubs have a fair chance to address safety concerns.
Meanwhile, Zamalek supporters caused an uproar in the stands on Wednesday at the Cape Town Stadium where the match against Stellenbosch ended 1-1.
Local Egyptian fans who reside in South Africa had apparently raised banners that did not go down well with the Zamalek fans, who had travelled from Egypt.
This caused a fight among the Egyptian fans, and security moved in swiftly to quell the disturbance.