Patrice Motsepe, a South African mining billionaire and vice president of FIFA, owned Mamelodi Sundowns, which violated safety and security regulations by hosting a game against Esperance of Tunisia on April 1st, according to a late Thursday CAF disciplinary ruling.
Motsepe was elected unopposed last month and has served as the president of the African football organization CAF for four years.
Sundowns, according to the African football organization, is “required to strictly implement the safety and security measures specified in the CAF regulations, guidelines, and directives, especially in their upcoming matches.”
According to CAF, Esperance was fined $150, 000 for the fan misconduct related to the first-leg clashes in the stands during the quarterfinal match.
Sundowns won the first game 1-0 in Pretoria before moving on to the semifinals a week later when the return match ended goalless in Tunis. In the first leg of the semifinals on Saturday, the South African team takes on Al Ahly of Egypt, a second Club World Cup team.
As two of FIFA’s first 32-team Club World Cup entries, Sundowns and Esperance will both be exhibiting in the US in June.
Both qualified because of consistently strong CAF Champions League performance through 2024.
Sundowns will play games in Orlando, Cincinnati, and Miami as part of a Club World Cup group that includes South Korean players Ulsan, Borussia Dortmund, Germany, and Fluminense of Brazil.
Because Esperance belongs to the same ownership as another Mexican team that qualified, Pachuca, FIFA disqualified it from the group with Chelsea of England, Brazil’s Flamengo, and a third team that was supposed to be Leon. Philadelphia and Nashville are the locations of those games.
Source: Aljazeera
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