Morocco, final controversies and VAR: Cardoso expects no troubles for Sundowns in Rabat

Moroccan football has a reputation for excellence and a hunger to win. That drive for victory is tinged, when winning does not come, by the tendency to be cry-babies.

As Mamelodi Sundowns take a 1-0 lead into Sunday’s second leg of the 2025-26 Caf Champions League final against AS FAR in Rabat, they will hope a first leg at Loftus marred by some violence in the stands and the controversial malfunction of the video assistant referee (VAR) does not see reprisals in Morocco.

Downs coach Miguel Cardoso said he saw enough good spirit between the teams on the field in Pretoria to suggest it will be a football contest, not otherwise.

Cardoso is seeking victory in his third final in the competition in succession after losing the last two while helming Espérance Tunis and last year with Sundowns, against Egypt’s Pyramids. The Portuguese said the discussions with countryman and counterpart Alexandre Santos when FAR initially refused to retake the field on learning the VAR at Loftus was offline, were held with great respect.

Yet two major finals involving Morocco of recent years suggest Downs need to be wary of the country pulling its perceived weight as the power in the Confederation of African Football (Caf). This even if the continental body’s president right now, Patrice Motsepe, is South African and Downs’ stand-aside owner during his term at Caf.

In the 2018-19 Champions League final, Wydad Athletic went 1-0 down in the second leg away against Espérance (it had been 1-1 in Morocco), had a goal disallowed, demanded the VAR, then, finding out the monitor was broken, left the field for an hour. The referee abandoned the game and awarded the result to Espérance. A protracted legal battle saw Caf initially order a replay, a decision overturned by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the Tunisian club kept the title.

In the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final in Rabat in January — at the notoriously hostile, 70,000-seat Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah where Downs will face FAR — Senegal had a 1-0 lead and left the field for 17 minutes over a contentious stoppage-time penalty given to the hosts by the VAR. They returned and the Atlas Lions missed. The 1-0 result to Senegal has controversially been overturned by Caf’s appeals board after much fuss by Morocco, including threatening to withdraw as hosts of this year’s Women’s Afcon, though that decision is also expected to be overturned by CAS.

Cardoso said he had not seen the incidents of unruly FAR fans clashing with some Sundowns supporters and police in a top stand at Loftus and being dispersed by flashbangs.

“I didn’t know that. If something happened I’m really sorry and I hope there were no [serious] incidents and everything was under control and the supporters were safe,” he said.

“I had no time. I just picked up the phone and spoke with my family and spoke with a few players and was not briefed on that.

“I’m not worried about the atmosphere that can exist in Morocco. I think we both want to make a beautiful match for everybody and the sports spirit will prevail.

“I will have my family in the stands like my assistants will too. We have around 50 people going from Portugal to watch the match. So I just hope, and I’m pretty sure, that what we’re going to do on the pitch is show football at the level that it is played.”

One-zero is a slender advantage. It may be enough. There has been a feeling this can be the year for Downs to add the second star on the badge to the first from lifting the Champions League in 2016. In last year’s final Sundowns conceded late against Pyramids to draw 1-1 at home, making things tough in Cairo, where they lost 2-1 for a 3-2 aggregate defeat.

The single-goal lead this year, with no away goal for FAR, means if Downs can get a goal in Rabat, FAR then have to score three ― a 2-1 win to FAR in the second leg would see the Brazilians take the trophy on away goals.

Cardoso suggested pushing for a goal, with caution, will be his team’s aim. He believes, from what he saw on the field, the game in Rabat will be played in the best spirit, allowing for another chess-match contest of grit, class and intensity, where he wants Sundowns to attack within limits.

“You saw today my substitutions were never showed with the intention to hold [or close] the match [in Pretoria]. And that’s exactly the mindset I don’t want in my players — to think of holding the game.

“We need to think of all moments, be very strong on defence but, when we win the ball, play it and have it and try to express the football we have. And look for the ball. Because it can be absolutely decisive to score a goal there.

“The boys will be brave enough to employ the attitude we need. We’re going to try to approach the match in the best way strategically with a big respect for the opponent.

“And I hope it’s possible. Because today I saw a lot of sports spirit between the players, the coaches, the staff. Even when the VAR was not working you saw me speaking with [FAR’s officials], with FAR’s coach and we said to each other, ‘We represent Africa, we need to set an example to the world after what happened in the Afcon. And even without the VAR we have to play this match, let’s go.’

“I think it was beautiful how everybody understood each other. And that spirit of both teams towards the will to win will never take the match in a direction we don’t want to see.”

While Downs are sure to be more circumspect in Rabat, Cardoso said changing the style of play from their dominant, passing, pressing game would be foolish. Moroccan sides absorb and play counterattack, South African teams express and try to dominate through skill and quick-passing; Leopards have spots. The Brazilians will try to dominate again in Rabat, with caution, the coach suggested.

Of course, we need to close the ears. We need to understand that the environment we go to is a privilege to experience. There’s not many people in the world who get to enjoy playing a stadium like that, so beautiful and with the ambience we are going to face.

—  Miguel Cardoso

“Once again we saw a fantastic level of football,” he said of the first leg of an excellently competitive, tactical clash of styles between two classy outfits in Pretoria.

“Teams must play as loyal to the way they are [as possible]. There’s no sudden transforming the identity of a team. And our identity goes beyond the will of a coach, from the direction and roots of the South African people and where this club comes from and wants to go.

“So obviously there are always strategic parts of matches where we need to take care. But there are four moments of the game to express [yourselves] and Sundowns on the level we showed today [Sunday] will be able to overcome the difficulties we will have in the second match.

“Of course we need to close the ears. We need to understand that the environment we go to is a privilege to experience. There’s not many people in the world who get to enjoy playing a stadium like that, so beautiful and with the ambience we are going to face.

“But also there’s not many people who can be cheered by the kinds of fans we have here, and we’ll take them in our hearts and use that for strength in the difficult moments in the game, trying to reduce them as much as possible, trying to control this team [FAR] as much as possible. And then playing it in the moments where we have the ball, trying to be compact [without it], trying to be a collective. Only a collective can win the Champions League.”