CAS Annuls CAF’s Decision, Declares ES Tunis CL Winners

The Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS has shortly annulled the Confederation of African Football (CAF)’s decision over replaying the African Champions League (CL) final between Wydad Casablanca of Morocco and Esperance of Tunisia.

CAS also declared the Tunisian team as the winners of Africa Champions League following its ruling on Wednesday.

The five-time Champions were controversially stripped of the trophy after CAF announced that the second leg of the Champions League final be replayed.

This was after the Esperance’s opponents Wydad Casablanca refused to continue playing due to issue with the faulty VAR system.

It is noteworthy that the CAF has previously announced that the second leg of the African Champions League final will be replayed after the original fixture was abandoned and match awarded to Esperance after opponents Wydad Casablanca left the pitch following a disputed decision, according to Reuters.

The first leg in Casablanca on 25 May ended 1-1 and Esperance were 1-0 up in the return a week later when Wydad thought they had equalised, only for the referee to signal offside.

VAR system was not working and after a delay of almost two hours the match was awarded to the home side Esperance, who were handed the trophy and winners’ medals.

Meanwhile, the African Football’s executive committee Confederation meeting in Paris on the fringes of FIFA congress, decided on Wednesday to restage the match at a neutral ground in a decision that could spark an immediate legal challenge.

Noteworthy, rules set by the game’s lawmakers, the International Football Association Board, state that a match cannot be invalidated because of VAR technology malfunctioning or if there is a wrong decision involving VAR.