Ajax hit by double blow

Published Apr 8, 2005

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Ajax Cape Town have been rocked by yet another long-term banning ahead of Sunday's first leg of the African Champions League third round tie against Fello Star of Guinea at Newlands.

Star defender Bageta Dikulu has been banned for a year by the Confederation of African Football for his role in the fracas involving referee Brice Igue of Benin after the final whistle of the controversial Champions League tie against Yennega FC in Burkina Faso in March.

Ajax's match preparations for the important clash were further derailed after Caf also ruled this week that goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs' initial ban for a drugs related offence would stand for all Caf competitions despite his being cleared to play by an independent arbitration panel last week.

Caf ruled in favour of the initial Fifa directive which had instructed the South African Football Association (Safa) to hand Josephs an outright six-month ban and not a suspended sentence as was decided on by the Safa Disciplinary committee.

The Ajax player, who returned to form with a bang against Cosmos on Wednesday, will now have to wait for the outcome of yet another urgent appeal, which, if unsuccessful, will mean an unexpected Champions League appearance for 19-year-old Andre Petim.

Coach Gordon Igesund is also uncertain about his own position in the dugout. He learned via a letter from Caf a few days after the ill-fated match that he too had been red-carded by the referee. Igesund was subsequently banned for two Champions League fixtures, one of which was the second leg against Yennega.

Igesund said on Thursday he would question why Josephs was suspended for one match for his red card while his punishment was two matches. The Ajax coach would have to run things via cellphone from the grand stand on Sunday should nothing come of his inquiry.

An irate Ajax boss, John Comitis, said the club have appealed both his players' sentences, adding that the lengthy ban on Dikulu was especially harsh. Comitis said there had been no formal hearing.

"How do they justify such an outcome?" he added.

"There were about six to eight people around the referee at the time and everyone was pushing and shoving. It was chaos, but no one had assaulted the referee as Dikulu now stands accused of."

Ajax fear that Caf could yet go a step further and call for a blanket ban for Dikulu. Comitis said they would be taking the necessary steps to calm matters down and would call for rational decisions rather than emotional ones.

"We will never condone any form of misconduct towards match officials but to ban a player for a year from all soccer for what were merely shows of frustrations by a number of people would be a travesty of justice.

"As far as Moeneeb's case is concerned, we'll continue the fight on the basis that he was not guilty of any drugs offence but only of an administrative oversight. That much has been proved at the arbitration hearing, hence the boy being cleared to play by Safa. We think Caf should honour that outcome."

Losing Josephs and Dikulu would be a major blow to Ajax's hopes of a solid win to take into the away leg in two weeks' time.

Igesund claims to have only 13 fully fit registered players to choose from for Sunday's match.

"What a pity about all the drama," said Igesund. "The players should be concentrating on the football match rather than having to deal with so much controversy off the pitch.

"We're going into this match with no knowledge at all about the opposition. But I am still looking for a good win because we all know what sort of an experience the return leg is going to be. We have to make this opportunity count.

"The more goals we can bang in without giving anything away at the back the better."

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