AS FAR boss complains about VAR incident against Downs

AS FAR boss Alexandre Santos has issued a complaint regarding delays caused by VAR during his side’s first-leg clash against Mamelodi Sundowns.

The tie did not go their way the first time around as they suffered a 1-0 defeat in Pretoria, but the Moroccan outfit will be keen to level matters and put themselves back in good stead to try and win their first CAF Champions League crown since 1985.

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What they perhaps will not be so keen on are delays caused by another VAR outage, which delayed the resumption of the game after the half-time break.

According to Foot Africa, the Royal Army hesitated to resume the match due to the delay, however it became operational again during the second half.

While it seemed to be a momentary malfunction, the Portuguese tactician said that the situation caused the side some discomfort.

“I think the VAR situation was not easy for us, because the resumption of play took a long time, but that is football. Unfortunately, I think that should not happen in such big and important matches,” he said, per Foot Africa.

“But this is the reality and we must go to Rabat, recover and do our best, and without a doubt if we give our best in the next match we will be able to win the title.”

Sundowns manager Miguel Cardoso also spoke about the incident after the match and noted how important it was for everyone to keep their cool, using the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to explain why it was imperative for all involved to be good examples to the rest of the world.

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“Today, I saw a lot of sporting spirit between the players, the coaches, the staff. Even when the VAR was not working, you saw me speaking with [Mohamed] Hrimat, you saw me speaking with [Abdelfettah] Hadraf, you saw me speaking with the coach,” he said in the post-match press conference, per ESPN.

“We told each other: ‘We represent Africa. We need to be a good example to the world after what happened at AFCON. We have to play this match. Even without VAR, we have to play it. Let’s go.’

“I think it was very beautiful to see how everybody understood each other. We saluted each other in the end.”