Al-Ahly escalates the CAF Champions League final stadium crisis to the Sports Court
The Egyptian Al-Ahly club, the champion of the last two editions of the African Champions League, decided to resort to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) "to seek justice" in the crisis of the final stadium of the continental championship, in response to the CAF's refusal to hold the match on a neutral stadium.
Al-Ahly said in a statement on its website that it will appeal the CAF decision in this regard and will request urgent measures to settle the matter before the scheduled date of the match at the end of this month.
CAF announced that the match will be held in Morocco, but at the same time indicated that it is currently studying the holding of the final match with the old system, back and forth.
Al-Ahly is close to qualifying for the final of the most prominent continental club championship for the third consecutive season, after its 4-0 victory over its guest, ES Setif of Algeria, last Saturday, while the return match will be held next week.
Morocco's Wydad Casablanca won 3-1 from Angola's Petro Atletico stadium, before hosting the return leg on Friday.
Al-Ahly, the record holder, hopes to win the title (ten times) not to obstruct justice and demands urgent measures and the submission of relevant documents to the court so that this matter can be decided upon and prompt justice is achieved.
Al-Ahly’s decision to escalate to the Sports Court came after it saw that assigning the organization of the final match to a particular stadium for the second year in a row might entail giving one of the teams the advantage of playing at its stadium and among its fans, as well as other legal violations.
The statement added, "CAF relied on the existence of a single bid to host the match, and the other bid was withdrawn without being announced or its reasons."
And CAF announced in a statement on its website yesterday, Monday, that “in view of the previous decision on July 17, 2019 to hold the final match from one confrontation, the Federation received two offers from the Moroccan Federation and its Senegalese counterpart to host the final.
But the Senegalese Football Association withdrew its offer to host Morocco in the final.
This comes at a time when Mahmoud Al-Khatib, President of Al-Ahly, called for an emergency meeting next Sunday to discuss the club's position on the CAF decision.
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