Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has shed light on how the club is being mistreated as he shared insights into the seven other quarter-finalists in the CAF Champions League.
Sundowns go into tomorrow’s first leg tie at Loftus against the league champions of Mali, who won a group containing Esperance Sportive de Tunis, Petro Atletico and Simba SC – as the only team that had domestic action this week.
While it wouldn’t be the first time he raised concerns over the scheduling for Sundowns, which he deems unfair, he attempted to contextualise how the playing field is not level.
“Look, Sundowns, we play two days ago, so three days difference between matches, and between the two legs we will play Marumo Gallants – I don’t know if you know? But from all seven teams [left in the Champions League] besides us, nobody has matches between the two legs,” Cardoso explained.
“Stade Malien had nine days to prepare for the match and will not play between the two legs of the competition, Esperance had seven days to prepare for the Al Ahly match and don’t play between the two legs.
“Al Ahly had six days to prepare and don’t play between the two legs, ASFAR has six days to prepare and don’t play between two matches, Pyramids have five days to prepare and don’t play between the two legs.
“Berkane six days, no games between legs, Al Hilal has 12 days and not playing between matches, this is an absolute shame what is happening in South Africa and how Sundowns is being treated, it is not normal! I spoke after the match in Rustenberg, regarding what happened in the French league with PSG and Spanish league with Real Madrid.
“Pep Guardiola was complaining about the treatment of the Premier League, but then I don’t want people to say that is Europe, seems like it’s another world, but it’s not, look at the realities in Africa, all the leagues are providing [good] conditions for their clubs to represent the countries in the best way, we feel mistreated in the way we’re being considered.”
Cardoso went on to highlight how Sundowns have been an incredible shining light for football in South Africa but it feels like there are forces against them achieving more success, locally and continentally at present.
“We did very well last year in the Champions League, nine years ago winning the Champions League, won the African Football League, this club was the best team from Africa in the FIFA Club World Cup – so I just don’t understand why it’s possible to play ORBIT and play Gallants on Tuesday,” he continued.
“There’s also people probably happy that it’s raining and we have to play on a heavy pitch, not in the best conditions that we’d like it to be, which doesn’t help but there’s more important things than the pitch – because it’s the same for both teams.
“What we needed was proper time to rest and prepare for this match – and rest after this one to prepare [for the second leg] – so there’s people working to create conditions for us not to succeed. Morena is not available after being injured against ORBIT for the exact action that saw Jayden Adams get a red card against [Golden Arrows] but that player got nothing and we continue to play against 11.
“I’m not speaking about dark nights or ghosts, but I can’t speak about this, I don’t want to be punished, but it’s not proper for a club like this with a good attitude and sportsmanship to the game, not get provided the conditions to succeed.”
