Young Africans accused match officials of manipulating their Champions League match against Mamelodi Sundowns in a complaint they submitted with Caf.
After an aimless aggregate score, the Brazilians won 3-2 in the penalty shootout to eliminate Young Africans from the Caf Champions League.
The Tanzanian team appeared to have scored in one of the incidents, but the video assistance referee ultimately disallowed it.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Subsequently, Yanga suggested that there might have been match-fixing and accused the authorities of trying to influence the contest in Masandawana’s favor.
This generated discussion on the contested goal and attracted the attention of former Fifa-accredited referee Victor Hlungwani, who investigated the matter.
WHAT HLUNGWANI SAID?
“Let’s go to law, law number 10 determining the outcome of the match says, ‘A goal is scored when the whole of the ball crosses over the goal line between the two upright posts under the crossbar.’ So now, if you look at the images there it will tell you that the whole of the ball must cross without leaving a small piece,” he said on SABC Sport.
“So now when we go to Yanga, when we go to Aziz himself, we are going to check if the whole of the ball did cross over the line. The (shot) was very quick, thunder and lightning, we can see when the ball is in the air that it’s not easy for us to judge. Did the whole of the ball go over the line? You can see there is a small piece there, that small piece whether it is 99 percent and it left one piece (percentage) – no goal. If it was 100 percent over the line then the goal would’ve been given,” he explained.
“We can’t give that as a goal, so Tanzania, this ball did not cross over the line – protest or no protest, Caf would not take it. Good decision by VAR.”
WHAT NEXT FOR SUNDOWNS?
As Yanga grapples with their disappointment from the exit of the Caf Champions League, Sundowns are gearing up for their upcoming fixtures. Their next challenge awaits as they take on Cape Town Spurs in a Premier Soccer League match on Tuesday, April 9th.
Followed by the Nedbank Cup quarter-final against the University of Pretoria on Friday, April 12th.
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