ENTRY DENIED!

It is sad to hear that most African countries, Morocco in particular, are refusing to grant visas to South African teams so the latter could honour their CAF matches. They use COVID-19 as their excuse and yet they want those matches to be played in a neutral venue, irrespective of whether it’s a home or away game. If they deny entry in their country to these teams, how can they expect other countries to host these games? If there were protocols that were/ are not being followed as per CAF/ FIFA specifications, I personally don’t think the DStv Premiership would have been allowed to resume from the start. I feel that these people want to gain some sort of an advantage over the South African teams and CAF is being biased. If they also felt the same as Morocco, they would have sent a correspondence to SAFA informing them of their concerns, but CAF is Morocco anyway, so I couldn’t expect more from them. The worst part of all of this nonsense is that South African teams are being allowed to make all the necessary arrangements for their away games, only to be told at the eleventh hour that they will not be allowed entry in these countries. CAF is still below par in terms of professionalism compared to their European counterparts. Jimmy Thomas, Elliot, Eastern Cape

Motsepe must just take over as president of CAF because I can see they are just very incompetent in everything they do. Just because Motsepe accepted the nomination, they are treating South African teams like a rotten potato. How can these Arab countries do as they wish and the whole of CAF keeps quiet? This is unfair to Mzansi teams. Forward with Motsepe, forward. Away with maladministration, away. Stephen Mpya, Mamphulo village

I am so disappointed and disgusted with the way some countries conduct themselves regarding football matters. Morocco, Egypt and Algeria must look themselves in the mirror if they are part of this beautiful continent. South Africans are not transporters of COVID-19, so they must not segregate us by denying visas for our teams. We are in one continent, but their behaviour suggests that they live in another world. All these countries that don’t co-operate, shame on them because as Africans, I feel that we must help one another. I understand the sovereignty of those countries, but denying visas and the hosting of games in their countries does not show solidarity. It’s high time that CAF makes some amendments to their policy and law regarding the visa issue and playing in a neutral venue. I really want to applaud SAFA for representing our teams well in this regard and I want to encourage them to fight until the end. My take is that if CAF don’t solve this matter, Chiefs and Sundowns must get a fat three points. As for those countries who behave as if they are in their own world, they must know that we will accept them with a big plate of humanity and hospitality when they come here. Victor Madimetja, via email

It seems as if Southern Africa is not welcomed in African football. Maybe only blacks are African and those of an Arabian disposition in Africa are Europeans. Al Hilal came to South Africa to play against Sundowns without COVID-19 issues to complain about. Algeria refused to give us permission to come and play with their team. Ditto Morocco regards Chiefs. Are we about to be separated again? Is it because we are not yet accepted in international football? Why do some countries accept us and come into our country while others can’t? CAF is not doing enough to intervene in this regard. If it was us on the opposite end of this madness, a fine would already have been issued. This is the reason why we will not have a team in the final of the World Cup anytime soon. Our football is miles behind that of other continents. Terah Maqepula, Mount Fletcher

What is happening to our football clubs participating in CAF competitions is uncalled for. CAF, as the mother body, should have

been fair, partial and condemned this ill-treatment directed at South African clubs. CAF always prides itself as an organization that practises free and fair competition with no room for racism, but what happened to Chiefs and Sundowns was indirect racism. Our African counterparts act as if the COVID-19 pandemic originated in South Africa. They also act as if their countries don’t have COVID-19. Football is a wonderful sport that unites and heals broken souls. We’ve got a lot of our African brothers and sisters living in South Africa, but we don’t discriminate against them. Maybe it’s about time our South African clubs stop acting all holy when these African clubs visit our country. We must start giving back as much as we are getting from these clubs. We always hear about unfair treatment visited on our clubs, but when they come here, we always give them five-star treatment. Why? Let’s stop it. Enough is enough! Even Bafana Bafana is always subjected to this unfair treatment in these countries. SAFA must please stand up against these bully tactics by CAF. CAF is always quick to ban South African clubs when they refuse to participate in their competitions and it’s because of such treatment. Really, are we the only people in the whole world who have the Coronavirus? Next they won’t even allow Mr Patrice Motsepe to stand for the CAF presidency because he’s coming from South Africa, the originator of COVID-19. Sibusiso Khumalo, Melmoth, KZN

I fail to understand why CAF treats Mzansi teams like outsiders. What do rules say about teams that don’t honour their fixtures? Or do CAF have rules for Southern African teams and rules for Northern/Eastern African teams? For how long will we play second fiddle to these Northern/Eastern African teams? Had it been Chiefs refusing to play Wydad in South Africa, CAF would have quickly slapped them with a huge fine, suspension and even awarded three points and two goals to Wydad. I now understand why some of Mzansi’s big guns aren’t taking these CAF competitions seriously and prefer to field fringe players. I urge both Sundowns and Chiefs not to honour their return legs at neutral venues. Instead, they should stage those games at FNB Stadium and Loftus Versfeld Stadium respectively. Should those teams not see it fit to play at the above-mentioned stadiums, they should rather forfeit points. Tente Mokoka, Sepharane