MC Alger hit with stiff punishment as CAF announces sanctions for incidents from CAF club competitions

The quarterfinals of the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup provided plenty of drama last week. With the high amount of passion came numerous incidents involving players, technical staff and supporters with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) handing down multiple punishments on Thursday.

The most notable sanctions came against MC Alger who engaged in mass confrontations with the referee crew and staff running onto the pitch after a late penalty kick appeal was denied. Below is CAF’s statement on MC Alger’s series of punishments:

But MC Alger was not the only club punished. Fellow Algerian clubs USM Alger and CS Constantine were punished as well as Morocco’s AS FAR, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates of South Africa, Egypt’s Pyramids FC and Tunisian giants Espérance.

Most of these punishments came from fan misbehavior including use of laser pointers, improper behavior of supporters and in the case of Pyramids, crowd control and ticketing issues arising from AS FAR supporters being kept out of the stadium for the first leg of their Champions League clash.

Mamelodi Sundowns were fined $100,000 after failing to provide adequate safety and security measures for visiting Espérance supporters in South Africa. Orlando Pirates had a club official banned for multiple matches while defender Nkosinathi Sibisi and goalkeeper Sipho Chaine received one-match suspensions, each of which were suspended for one year meaning they will be available for the Champions League semifinals beginning this weekend. Pirates were fined $70,000 for the infractions.