Confederation of African Football (Caf) Cup |13 September 2022

St Michel progress to second round

St Michel have progressed to the second round of the 2023 Confederation of African Football Cup without kicking a ball after winning by walk-over against Equatorial Guinean outfit Inter Litoral Academy.

The decision was taken yesterday by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) disciplinary committee.

St Michel were declared winners of their preliminary round ‘home match’ after the Equatorial Guineans did not turn up for the encounter scheduled to be played last Friday at 5pm at the Côte d'Or Sports Complex in Mauritius.

Inter Litoral Academy wrote to Caf last Thursday saying they were having flight difficulties and would arrive in Mauritius only late on Saturday afternoon.

As the competition's regulations state clearly that late postponements of properly scheduled matches are considered only in cases of force majeure, meaning catastrophes, disasters, political upheavals and the like, Caf ruled that bad planning was not such a case and ruled that the game be held as planned.

St Michel thus took to the field last Friday afternoon and with their opponents nowhere in sight, were declared winners by walk-over after remaining on the pitch for the duration stated in the regulations.

The referee and match commissioner then sent their reports to Caf’s disciplinary committee which decided the next step.

St Michel have been declared winners of the two-legged preliminary round encounter based on regulation 16 of the competition which states: "If for any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match ‒ except in case of force majeure accepted by the organising committee ‒ or if it refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the permission of the referee, it shall be considered as loser and shall be eliminated from the competition."

The Anse Aux Pins-based team will now meet Daring Club (DC) Motema Pembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the second round.

Gerard Govinden