‘I’m at a point where I want to retire’: Hunt dismayed at SuperSport-Hilal brawl

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt says Libyan outfit Al Hilal Benghazi's unsporting and underhand tactics led to the ugly scenes during Wednesday night's Caf Confederation Cup clash at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.   

SuperSport’s 2-1 victory was marred by a brawl between the teams involving multiple players in the last 10 minutes of the group A clash.   

This was United's first win in the group stages after four games. Having lost their three previous games, the result kept SuperSport in with a chance — though a decidedly outside one — of reaching the quarterfinals.

With two games to go, USM Alger lead the group with 10 points, Egypt's Modern Future have seven and Hilal and last-placed SuperSport are on three. 

Instead of savouring the win, Hunt felt he could call time on his career because of the ruckus.

In a video circulating on social media, fists were seen to fly in the brawl. Hunt said SuperSport had been subjected to this sort of treatment before in the tournament, notably in their away 2-1 defeat against Hilal in Benghazi on December 10.   

“It was worse there last week,” Hunt said. “That's what we go through every week [in the Confed].

“I don’t know where football is going, but it’s not going in the right direction and that’s why Africa will always be behind.

“We can never go forward, because when you get things like that, it’s sad, but that’s the state of football.”   

Hunt alleged the fight arose when Hilal tried to get a SuperSport player sent off.   

The heated match had already seen red cards dished out to SuperSport goalkeeper Washington Arubi and Hilal's Ahmed Abdulaziz. After the brawl, SuperSport assistant coach Grant Johnson was also shown red.   

“I don’t want to go into this, but it’s more [about] the opposition than the match officiating. The match officiating was not good, but the opposition, in the way they played the game, is what caused the commotion,” Hunt said.   

“Did you see what happened? It’s not right, but hey. if you want to play like that, we won’t play like that. But it is what it is.

“I can’t put my finger on [what caused] it because there was so much commotion. We were lucky it didn’t end worse than it was. It could have ended worse, but it didn’t, so we are lucky.   

“But it came from somebody trying to get somebody sent off and it was not right. Right in front of us, so a lot of people reacted.

“And we’ve won the game. I should be happy but I’m disappointed.   

“I’m at a point where I want to retire and get out of the game because you can’t play football like this.”

The coach was still pleased at how United were able to get a win out of such a heated match.   

Hunt made 10 changes to the team that defeated Moroka Swallows in the DStv Premiership on Friday, giving a run to many youngsters.   

“[With] what we did, we grew up again today [Wednesday] with children. We gave more debuts to 18-year-olds, youngsters, and it was good for them, the club and will benefit the game in the long run.”

SuperSport have another tough game as they battle to keep their second position in the Premiership when they meet third-placed Orlando Pirates at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday (5.45pm).