Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has condemned the disappointing chaotic scenes that followed after his side qualified for the CAF Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night in Soweto.
Pirates held MC Alger to a goalless draw in the 2nd leg of their quarter-final tie to seal a 1-0 aggregate victory with the help of the goal they scored away in the first leg and dumped the Algerian side out of the competition.
Scenes that followed interrupted and overshadowed the Buccaneers celebrations, clashes between the two technical benches erupted into physical altercations.
Riveiro was asked about the incident at the post match press conference and he said though he didn’t know exactly what happened that kind of chaos has no space in football or sport in general. The coach added that none of it is acceptable and should not be tolerated.
“I don’t really know what happened and now probably we go into the space to know who started the fight I think it doesn’t matter,” said Riveiro.
“Like I said for me, for us, for my group, football is something else, something special. It’s something that cannot get dirty with these type of behaviours. Is something unacceptable.
“Whatever happened, like I said, probably everybody was making mistakes there outside. But those behaviours must be as far as possible from these types of spectacles, far from sports because we don’t really need it.
“We have to learn how to win and we have to learn how to lose. We have to accept the result whatever is coming. And again I don’t really know because I was just sitting on the bench when everything started.
“I was trying to understand the dimension of what we just achieved a few seconds before and all of a sudden everything was a mess in front of me.
“Probably we will see some pictures and I hope that the people that find themselves in those pictures feel embarrassed enough to not repeat it again and we can have just a normal football game every time we are coming to the stadium.
“Like I said before, I think our fans are a good example all around the world about what it means to go to a football game, the way to come to the stadium and enjoy with a good spirit, with a good mood.
“Like I said I don’t want to say much, because I don’t have all the information right now, but hopefully it’s the last time that we see this type of scenes here in Orlando.”
