ETOILE FANS DECRY EGYPT REF

MBABANE – Visiting Etoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia are under pressure to finish their CAF Confederation Cup group stage qualification tomorrow away from home in Manzini.

News that Young Buffaloes are a closed book to them is bad tricky enough for them but learning who will be in charge of their second leg clash in a week’s time was the biggest blow. Egyptian referee Ibrahim Nouruddin will be in charge of the match as centre referee but the club’s supporters are not so pleased with the appointment. 

Why so? Not so long ago, just last month, Etoile knocked out Egyptian rivals Al Mokawloon with a 2-1 aggregate in a high-tension game that saw one red card to the losing side in the first round. This result has had the supporters of Etoile shooting at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the decision.

They took turns in the club’s official Facebook page since the club posted the officials for the second- leg next Sunday at Sfax Stadium in Tunisia. Some of their texts are unpalatable, but generally, they were aimed at the referee and his assistants along with CAF. It was also easy to sense the politics involved between Tunisia and Egypt from some of the comments.

“We have jurisprudence with this verdict; we must get the nomination from Allah to win. Disappointed,” read one of the comments while several others read ‘I swear to God, may God protect us’, ‘We ousted an Egyptian team, they are out’, ‘Egyptian? May God grant him good! Egyptian doesn’t like Tunisian, he likes the recipe’ and ‘May God help us for the sake of our candidacy on the back of an Egyptian team’.

discipline

Another decided to encourage his team to first focus on the away meeting with Buffaloes and that ‘God willing, with focus and discipline as well as following coach’s instructions, goals will come in abundance’ as the match must be finished here to beat the challenge of match officials. The supporter says the referee did not appoint himself so his team must just do the job tomorrow.

Three others focused on CAF saying it’s the dirtiest decision in African football while one added that the Egyptian was not among the best in his own country. 

Many others expressed their faith was in God to lead them through to the group stage whatever the challenge in the two-legged tie with Buffaloes. Meanwhile, Etoile touched down in Eswatini yesterday for the first-leg of the CAF Confederation Cup playoff round. 

The match is scheduled for 3pm tomorrow at Mavuso Sports Centre. 

access

Buffaloes know their rivals having seen them play against Mbabane Swallows three years ago in the same competition and have also had access to the most recent matches on video.

Worth mentioning is that tomorrow’s match officials are from the Comoros Islands and were also criticised by the Tunisian supporters for political reasons. 

These officials are as listed below;

CAF match officials:

Referee -

l Ali Mohamed Abdelaid (Comoros)

Assistant Referee 1 - l Mohammed Ibrahim (Comoros)

Assistant Referee 2 - l Said Omar Chebli (Comoros)

l Thamsanqa Mokoena - Match Commissioner (South Africa)

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