Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane has questioned the scheduling of the Africa Cup of Nations and FIFA Club World Cup that handicapped the African champions.
Mosimane was without seven of his first-team players who were with the Egypt national team when they beat Mexican giants Monterrey 1-0 on Saturday evening.
Added to that, Percy Tau had been ruled out through a muscle injury which made the victory all the more sweeter with the severely depleted squad against Javier Aguirre’s men.
And Mosimane did not mince his words in the official press conference after the game and feels something needs to be done to even the chances of success for African clubs.
“If CAF and FIFA arrange games on top of one another, it’s amazing, it’s unbelievable how this happens – it’s like nobody knew when is the Cup of Nations, it’s like nobody knew when the FIFA Club World Cup [is],” he said.
“But Africa will always be compromised when it comes to this, we play Palmeiras who are rested. We have to play again, why [do] we play Palmeiras in the semi-finals? Why don’t they play earlier also?
“What’s the criteria? So anyway, we are not politicians, we talk about football but those are realities that are happening… the scale is not proper when it comes to Africa and Europe.
“But it’s a fact, we can hide it or we can prefer not to talk about but it’s a fact, it’s there.”
The Red Devils face the Copa Libertadores champions on Tuesday at the Al Nahyan Stadium for a place in the final of the Club World Cup.
