Gor Mahia facing tough sanctions after ugly CAFCC scenes

Gor Mahia coach Manuel Vaz Pinto

Tuesday Feb 23, 2021. 13:00

Kenyan giants Gor Mahia are facing heavy sanctions from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following the disgraceful scenes upon their exit from the playoff round of the CAF Confederation Cup this past weekend.

Gor Mahia drew 2-2 away to Zambia’s NAPSA Stars on Sunday, with the result seeing the latter team advance into the group stage with a 3-2 aggregate triumph.

The Kenyan side were leading 2-1 until injury time at the end of the game when South African referee Lebalang Mokete awarded a penalty to the hosts, which was converted by Emmanuel Mayuka and proved to be decisive in the tie.

Gor Mahia players aggressively descended upon referee Mokete after the final whistle in protest against what they felt was an unfair penalty decision.

An unnamed official from the Kenyan champions told Goal that he expects harsh punishment from CAF.

“The situation after the game was not good, the players were angered by the referee’s decision to award the penalty late on and were also not happy the game was played six minutes of added time, and that is why they reacted like that,” the official explained.

“The referee later promised to give all the details to CAF and I am sure the club will be fined and banned, I don’t think CAF is going to spare us, we have to wait and see but the referee was not happy after the game.

“The worst part is the referee also picked out on individual players, who attacked him, and it means the players will also be punished individually while the club will also face their own wrath.”

Gor Mahia coach Carlos Manuel Vaz Pinto has not helped the situation by defending his players after the game: “You know I didn’t see a lot of things because of course, I understand my players were upset and frustrated because of what happened at the last minute,” he said.

“As much as I cannot agree if our behaviour is not correct and I always say this to my players, they need to have good minds always and our behaviour is correct but I understand why they tried to talk to the referee because what happened is a lot of frustration.”