CAF sticking with away-goals rule for now

CAF President Patrice Motsepe

Saturday May 27, 2023. 11:19

Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has revealed that the away-goals rule will remain in use for the time being in its two club competitions.

There have been calls for CAF to follow in the footsteps of UEFA by scrapping the rule to promote home teams adopting an attacking approach, especially in the first leg.

UEFA did away with the rule on 24 June 2021 because the initial change ran counter to its original purpose of encouraging home teams to go on the attack in the away leg.

The away-goals rule most recently came into play in the CAF Champions League on May 20 when Wydad Casablanca eliminated Mamelodi Sundowns in the semi-finals following a 2-2 draw in the second leg at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

However, Motsepe believes football on the continent would become more defensive if a change was made now, stating that scoring goals is what the game is all about.

“Football worldwide is competing with other sports and you’ve got to score goals. You’ve got to discourage defending. That’s my football opinion,” he said.

“Supporters go to the stadiums to see goals, supporters and lovers of football go to the stadiums for the exciting and the competitive world-class football. But for now we’re going to leave things (away goals rule) as they are.

“We don’t want to see clubs when they play at home defending. I would love to see clubs being significantly more offensive. Go and score goals, but of course your defence must be very good.

“You must be solid defensively as well, but I think the focus at this stage is to go and score goals. That’s what make football worldwide quite exciting.”