Raja Casablanca calls on CAF to investigate ‘scandal’ after Champions League loss to Al-Ahly in Cairo

RIYADH: Raja Casablanca of Morocco have called on the Confederation of African Football to open an urgent investigation into what it described as a refereeing “scandal” during its CAF Champions League quarter-final first-leg loss to Al-Ahly of Egypt on Saturday.

Reigning African champions Al-Ahly won the match 2-1 in Cairo, the first goal coming from a hugely disputed penalty converted by Amr El-Soulia.

After the match, Raja President Anis Mahfouz presented a stern statement to CAF, protesting that referee Jean-Jacques Ndala of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the supervisor of the video assistant referee system, Algerian Mehdi Abeid, had committed “intended errors” that affected the outcome of the match.

In the opening minutes of the all-Arab clash Ndala had asked VAR to review a potential penalty for a suspected handball inside the Raja penalty area.

VAR confirmed the penalty decision against Raja defender Ilias Haddad, despite television replays from different angles showing that the ball did not touch his hand but hit his leg instead.

Raja said that they had attached to the complaint letter pictures showing the refereeing errors, especially the penalty award, which the statement considered “imaginary.”

The Moroccans also claimed that Al-Ahly’s second goal, scored by Hussein El-Shahat, had come from an offside position which was not checked by VAR.

Raja pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time through midfielder Mohamed Zrida, but the sending off of Marouane Hadhoudi on the hour put paid to any hopes of a comeback.

The return match will be played in Casablanca on Friday.