CAIRO – The Confederation of African Football (Caf) Appeals Board on Sunday rejected the appeal by Wydad Athletic Club with respect to the second-leg final of the Champions League last season.
The Appeals Board therefore upheld and confirmed the decision taken by the Caf Disciplinary Board on August 7.
At its meeting at the Caf Headquarters in Cairo, the board cited the following among others for their decision:
“The board underlined the fact that the absence of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has no legal effects whatsoever and that its sole purpose is to aid the referee to take the correct decision.
“The referee is vested with the power to have the final decision on the field of play since the start of the game, and that his decision is not up to review by the Appeal Board.
“The match officials’ reports were very clear that the Wydad players refused to resume the match even after several attempts conducted by the referee, to the point that the referee waited almost 90 minutes before he whistled the end of the match.
“The Appeal Board has noted that the stoppage of almost 90 minutes was due to the Wydad players’ failure to resume the match, the players were then instructed to resume play by the referee who has seen his attempts fail.
"Therefore the Appeal Board confirms that the match was forfeited by Wydad because their players refused to resume the match".