VAR to debut in Africa at CAF Super Cup[Sport]

CAF Champions league and the CAF Confederations Cup are into the last 32 stage, after the second and the last leg of the preliminaries ended on Wednesday. Tune in on Monday on Football Planet, to have a detailed look on who faces who.

But on the last day of the preliminaries, something unusual happened in Algeria. Congolese Club AS Otoho asked the referee in their CAF Champions league match against Algerian side MC Alger to end the match in the 81st minute after they had conceded their 9th goal.

AS Otoho who had arrived in Algeria leading 2-0 from the first leg experienced many challenges as they struggled to find a training venue. MC Alger’s rivals NA Hussein Dey barred them from using their training facilities after word got round that Otoho had mistreated MC Alger in Congo.

On the day of the match AS Otoho quickly conceded within 10 minutes and were down 3-0 at halftime. In the second half, the floodgates opened. MC Alger scored an additional 6 goals. The 9th goal came in the 81st minute and FC Otoho asked the referee to terminate the match, which he did in the 88th minute after most of the Otoho players stopped playing. MC Alger advanced 9-2 on aggregate.

VARs to debut in Africa at Super Cup

For the first time on the African soil, the VAR technology will be employed at Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca this Saturday, when DR Congo giants will be taking on Wydad Casablanca in the CAF Super Cup.

This official introduction follows a series of offline tests at the recently concluded CHAN 2018 event in Morocco. Now CAF has confirmed that the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and FIFA have approved the use of the technology.

The technology will be used to assist referees with key decisions, including the awarding of goals and penalties, red cards and offside.