PRETORIA, South Africa -- Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said that keeping calm, despite the VAR issues which delayed the second half of the CAF Champions League final first leg, was vital for Africa's footballing image.
The referee for at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday was Congolese official Jean-Jacques Ndala. He had been at the centre of controversy at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final between Senegal and Morocco in Rabat in January.
At Sunday's CAFCL final first leg, the teams faced a delay of over 20 minutes after coming out for the second half due to malfunctioning VAR technology.
Ultimately, the match proceeded without access to VAR for the second half, with Sundowns seeing out a 1-0 win over AS FAR, courtesy of Aubrey Modiba's first-half free-kick. There was no significant officiating controversy after the VAR blackout.
Cardoso said in his post-match press conference: "Today, I saw a lot of sporting spirit between the players, the coaches, the staffs. Even when the VAR was not working, you saw me speaking with [Mohamed] Hrimat, you saw me speaking with [Abdelfettah] Hadraf, you saw me speaking with the coach.
"We told each other: 'We represent Africa. We need to be a good example to the world after what happened at AFCON. We have to play this match. Even without VAR, we have to play it. Let's go.'
"I think it was very beautiful to see how everybody understood each other. We saluted each other in the end."
Cardoso said that he did not see the violence which broke out in the stands, leading to supporters and police using spray canisters against each other and police dispersing a stun grenade against AS FAR fans who were hurling objects.
Alexandre Santos, Cardoso's opposite number, said that while he witnessed crowd trouble, he did not view it as a serious enough incident to disrupt the match itself, which was not stopped. Both coaches expressed hopes that nobody was hurt.
Regarding the VAR controversy, Santos told the media: "It was not easy for us, because it took a lot of time to restart the game, but it's football unfortunately. I think it shouldn't happen in this kind of situation in this kind of big, important match, but it is what it is.
"We have to go to Rabat, recover and do, for sure, our best in the next game (the second leg on May 24) to give ourselves the possibility to win the title."
