By Velile Mnyandu
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has responded to calls for the implementation of the Video Assistant Referee (CAR) in its African Champions League matches following the comments made by Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane this past weekend.
Speaking after the defending CAFCL champions Ahly’s 1-0 loss to Mamelodi Sundowns at the FNB stadium on Saturday, Mosimane who was responding to a question from an Egyptian journalist on why there’s no VAR in the lucrative group stages, insinuated that the current CAF leadership has been slacking on providing the much needed VAR.
This was after Ahly’s second loss to Sundowns with a similar margin following the 1-0 loss in Cairo two weeks ago, going down for the first time to the 2016 African champions on home soil since their first meeting in 2001.
“Well, I always say, we have always benefited from VAR and also we had our challenges or results against us because of VAR,” said Mosimane about the slow pace of implementing VAR in the CAF inter-club competitions.
“It’s very difficult for the referees and the linesmen to really call it, it’s very difficult? We, ourselves we sometimes call it offside when it’s not really offside.
“But we should not be talking about that because fortunately we didn’t lose on a situation where VAR was supposed to be there, so we lost on a goal that is a normal goal.”
CAF started implementing VAR in its competitions in 2018 but only tested it during the finals of the CAFCL and CAF Confederation Cup and also used it during the CHAN tournament in 2019.
“But it only shows the difference between the Copa Libertadores (South America) and Asian Champions League to Africa’s Champions League, the difference is 20 years. But really how much does it cost, how much does it cost, if Egypt has it for every match but anyway, let’s not go to VAR because we lost.
“But we are 20 years behind on the implementation of VAR. There are always talks that things are going to be better on this but where better? What has happened, we still in the [Issa] Hayatou era, there’s no difference,” lamented Mosimane – a three time CAFCL winning coach (once with Sundowns and twice with Ahly).
CAF Head of Media and Operations Luxolo September defended his organization and argued that the current CAF President Patrice Motsepe who also happens to be Mosimane’s former boss at the Brazilians had been doing his best to take the cash strapped organization out of the big financial hole that he found it in.
“All AFCON 2021 matches were on VAR, the inaugural CAF Women’s Champions league was on VAR, and the upcoming 2022 World Cup African qualifiers will be on VAR,” said September.
Last week, Motsepe finished a year since he was elected as CAF President, replacing Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar, who had succeeded Cameroonian Hayatou in 2017, a man who ruled African football for 29 years since 1988.
During his campaign late in 2020, as part of Motsepe’s manifesto ahead of the 2021 elections, he promised to intensify the implementation of the VAR to end years of dubious officiating in the African football’s major competitions. During the recent African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 33rd edition in Cameroon, Motsepe and his Executive took a progressive step of implementing the VAR in all the 52 matches played in the tournament.
iDiski Times understands that this was a costly exercise that set back CAF by more than R50 million with the VAR estimated to have cost the continental football mother body close to R1.5 million per match. Previously, CAF had only used the VAR in the last eight matches of the competition and at the time had brought some credibility to the results.
“And then there are costs. Africa is vast and while some countries have this infrastructure some don’t. These are objective realities,” said September.
“The costs of rolling out VAR throughout Africa and what you will need to to do, are just very high and can run up to millions of dollars in a single month.”
Currently, it is only the Egyptian Premier League and the Botola Pro League in Morocco which use the VAR in all its domestic competition’s matches on the continent.
“We know in some African leagues they are already using VAR and that is fantastic. I know that the CAF referees’ department is actively teaching and empowering many referees on VAR.
“There is progress, but it’s not something we should approach in an emotional or sentimental way but we must be practical and give an objective view of our continent.
“President Motsepe is committed to this mission, to introduce technology and VAR in football. He has demonstrated that already and we should also not forget that the pyramids were not built in one weekend,” concluded September on the VAR implementation in Africa.
Last year, CAF only introduced VAR towards the conclusion of its inter-club competitions in the semi-final stages. September, a former Premier Soccer League (PSL) official couldn’t confirm when they would be bringing the technology in the current competitions.
“This is work in progress, we all know that when President Motsepe came in, CAF was sitting in the red. We need money and resources in this project. But we will make an announcement in due course on this,” said September.
