Tomorrow’s CAF Champions League final may lose its traditional glamour due to fears of crowd violence as six times champions, Al Ahly of Egypt and Tunisian giants, Esperance Sportive will battle it out for the coveted African title with a restricted crowd of 35 000 in Tunis. It is for fears of stadium violence and civil unrest.
Home side Esperance will look to keep the title for a second successive year in the second leg against Egyptian side, Al Ahly in the 65 000 seater Rades Stadium after the first leg in Cairo which ended 1-1 stand in their favour on away goal rule.
Tunisia’s Interior Ministry, which has confined most professional football to closed doors due to last year’s violence, has granted permission for the selling of tickets for just over half the capacity on ground. Egyptian authorities also allowed a restricted crowd to attend the first leg.
Tunisian spectators have been allowed to watch internationals and some Champions League group games but all league matches last season were played inside locked stadiums after a spate of stadium violence.
The ‘Arab Spring’ happened in Tunisia almost two years ago and restrictions continue in place at match venues for fear of crowd riots. Officials say the Interior Ministry had planned to allow only 27 000 tickets to be sold. Crowd violence has been a regular occurrence at Champions League finals over the last decade, including that at Rades within the last two years. In 2010, Esperance fans threw missiles onto the pitch during the game and post-match presentation ceremony as their team was beaten in the final.
Last year, teargas was fired by police to stop fighting between Esperance supporters and fans of beaten finalists Wydad Casablanca of Morocco. In August, Tunisia’s other representatives in the Champions League, Etoile Sahel, were kicked out of the competition after rioting fans caused the abandonment of a group match.
The two African club giants are meeting for the first time in the finals of the Orange Champions League. Al Ahly which was founded in 1907 was voted African club of the 20th century, while Esperance Sportive of Tunis formed in 1919 has also been crowned Champions League winners twice and has featured in three other finals.
Al Ahly will be playing its ninth Champions League final and for Esperance it will be six times they are featuring in the final. The Egyptians have been without domestic competition since the start of February after the Port Said tragedy that claimed the lives of 74 fans.