Admittedly you do feel sorry for everyone involved if a game is abandoned when one team has travelled a long way, but the competition’s integrity can also be at stake.
These images come from the ACL where Raja Casablanca played host to Teungueth this afternoon, and these pictures demonstrate perfectly why it shouldn’t have been played to a finish:
Ridiculous conditions in Casablanca ?????
(cc @MaghribFoot) #TotalCAFCL pic.twitter.com/p1rp9OhzFn
— MocroVids (@MocroVids) January 5, 2021
Round 32 of African Champions League: Raja Casablanca vs Tengueth. CAF refused to postpone the match due to "Travelling issues for the Senegalese team" from soccer
There are so many issues to unpack here, but forcing players to play in your major international cup competition where the ball can’t bounce or even touch the floor is a disastrous look all round.
It’s believed that the game was ordered to finish because of the travel issues that the Senegalese team had to face, while it also went to extra time and pens – mainly because it’s physically impossible to play football in these conditions so of course nobody was going to score.
It does look like perfect conditions if you’re messing around down the park and it would probably be fun if it wasn’t so serious, but at least Teungueth were able to escape back to Senegal with the win after the penalty shootout and you can see what it means to them:
This is what it means to Teungueth FC after they became the first Senegalese side to make it to the CAF Champions League group stages since 2004 when ASC Jeanne d’Arc reached the semis.
And to qualify at the expense of a big side like Raja in Morocco! pic.twitter.com/LfbUpQNFwW
— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) January 5, 2021
Hopefully they get to play in normal conditions in the next round.