The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has annulled the decision of CAF’s Executive Committee to replay the Champions League final between Wydad de Casablanca and Esperance de Tunis.
In a statement issued on Wednesday 31 July, the CAS Panel in charge of this case considered that CAF’s Executive Committee did not have the competence to order that the final return be replayed and decided to annul the contested decision: “Appeals from both clubs are therefore partially allowed for this reason. On the other hand, all other conclusions reached by the WAC are definitively rejected, while those of the TSE will be
dealt with in the final award,” the Tribunal announced, however.
He added: “In concrete terms, it is now up to CAF’s competent bodies to examine the incidents that occurred in the Radès stadium on 31 May 2019, to take any appropriate disciplinary action, if any, and consequently to decide whether or not the return match of the CAF Champions League 2018/19 should be replayed. The CAS Panel, having annulled the decision of CAF’s Executive Committee for formal reasons, decided to refer to the competent organs of CAF the questions of the repetition of the second leg of the final match and the disciplinary proceedings currently under way before CAF. The latter not being within the jurisdiction of CAS in the context of the present arbitration proceedings”.
It is also learned that the CAS Panel will continue its deliberations on TSE requests and prepare a final award, taking into account any possible decision taken by CAF in the meantime.
Played at the Olympic stadium in Rades (a suburb of Tunis), the final had come to a chaotic end following the injustice of which the referee of the match, Gambian Bakary Gassama, was guilty. He had refused to grant Walid Karti’s 59th-minute WAC equaliser goal for a supposed offside offense without any possibility of using the failed VAR to confirm its perfect regularity.
Article complet EST-WAC: CAS gave their final decision Sur L'Express.
