Mosimane won’t let Sundowns saboteurs worry him ahead of Ahly rematch

Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane says he is not concerned about more trouble from Mamelodi Sundowns supporters, when he takes his Egyptian giants to play his former side in the Caf Champions League in South Africa next month.

The last time Ahly faced Sundowns, in the Caf Champions League quarterfinals in May 2021, a group of supporters at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville surrounded the team bus on its way into the stadium shouting insults at Mosimane.

Mosimane said at the time, and still maintains, that the disruption was organised from inside the club. Ahly drew 1-1 in Atteridgeville to win the quarterfinal 3-1 on aggregate and went on to win the Champions League title.

“I can’t get worried about what I can’t control,” said the Ahly head coach, who won five DStv Premiership titles at Sundowns, and the Champions League in 2016, before moving to Ahly in 2020.

“I was at that team for eight years, I know the team in and out. I know what happened I know who organised that,” he added, in an interview with the South African Football Journalists Association.

“The supporters are being told what to do, they don’t do that. I spent my life there, whether it comes (again) or doesn’t it doesn’t matter, it’s about what happens on the pitch.

“I was sworn at, even my team, people were swearing at us when players were lining up to go out on the field. Even Sundowns’ players were disappointed that this person had told them to do this.

“They were swearing in my language, Al Ahly players don’t understand that, I am the only one who does. Even during the game they were swearing at us, at me. Is this what you need to receive when you gave your life, you gave everything to that team?

“There is no team I have given my life to like that. Not even at SuperSport (Mosimane’s first job as a head coach). I made sure I left the (Sundowns) jersey in a better place.

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“That is what is important … the work talks. Look back and say ‘have I contributed?’; ‘Is there any footprint?’; Have I left the jersey in a better place. Have the coaches who came (after me) said they need to fix the team? No (they have not).

“Even Ahly have not received what I gave Sundowns, but ok, you move on, you don’t worry about what happens and why.

“I have the Fifa World Club Cup to worry about, I have more to worry about than what happens on a street in Atteridgeville.”

The group match between Sundowns and Ahly, on the weekend of March 10-12, is set to be played at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng, with Lucas Moripe Stadium and Loftus Stadium deemed unfit to stage Champions League matches by the Confederation of African Football.