Caf Confederation Cup: Why AS Kigali vs KCCA FC match was cancelled – Muhoozi

Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA FC) have come out to explain why their Caf Confederation Cup match against AS Kigali was cancelled on Wednesday.

The Kasasiro Boys were already in Rwanda to take on AS in the preliminary round first leg fixture but the game was called off by Caf after the team failed to raise a required quorum of 15 players.

The team’s CEO Anisha Muhoozi has now revealed despite travelling with a squad of 15 players as per the Caf regulations after 12 of their players tested positive for Covid-19 back in Kampala, the team suffered another blow as two of their players also returned positive results while in Kigali on matchday.

It means KCCA had remained with only 13 players a move which promoted the African body to cancel the match and award it to AS Kigali on a 2-0 margin.

“KCCA was destined to play AS Kigali today [Wednesday] in the preliminary round game, however, the game was cancelled by Caf because KCCA couldn’t raise the required number of players which are 15, we only had 13 players and as per the Caf regulations this could not be enough for us to play against Kigali,” Muhoozi explained to KCCA TV in Kigali.

“Just to give you a brief background, KCCA travelled on Sunday with a squad of 15 players and unfortunately the other travelling squad couldn’t make it after the Covid-19 results came out, the players were positive and as such, they couldn’t travel with the full squad of 20 as earlier planned.

“However, we still wanted to honour the fixture and we went ahead and came with 15 players who were subjected to mandatory quarantine, the entire team actually was subjected to mandatory quarantine as per the government of Rwanda guidelines and the results were supposed to come out on Monday evening, however, this was not possible.

“We only received the results on Tuesday and the team went ahead and trained but we had earlier alone also undertaken another test as per the Caf guidelines, you are supposed to undertake a test 48 hours before the game and unfortunately on Wednesday, two results came back where we had positive cases leaving us with 13 players and as such we could not go ahead with the fixture.”

Muhoozi continued: “We went ahead as KCCA and engaged Caf trying to see if an exception could be done, but Caf gave the ruling and responded and said the game is cancelled and KCCA loses, we lost to AS Kigali with a 2-0 margin, so that means AS Kigali wins this tie but these guidelines were shared ahead of time and we were aware of them and that is why even when we had 15 players we still proceeded and traveled because we did not want to lose the game.

“The guidelines are very clear in the event you don’t have 15 players you automatically lose the tie but we did not want to just go ahead and concede the loss without giving ourselves a trying chance, which is what we did but unfortunately fate had its own plans.”

On whether KCCA will be ready for the return leg set for January 6, 2021, in Kampala, Muhoozi said: “We pick the positives from this, we have learnt a lot as a club and we are going to go back and rework the Covid-19 measures we had in place, maybe these calls to upscale what we have been doing, we actually need to upscale.

“We have a return leg on January 6, so that is what we are going to go back and prepare, and we are going to sit as a team and see the way forward in this regard because we need to have a full team by January 6, so we are going to go back and plan and come up with a plan of handling such matter in the future.”

On the two positive cases they received in Rwanda, Muhoozi explained: “As per the regulations here a test is supposed to be done every five days for people that are in quarantine and fortunately the five days’ elapse tomorrow [Thursday], so our players will be subjected into the tests and we are praying they return negative results so we can travel together as a team back to Kampala.

“However, if that is not the case, they will remain behind and will still be in quarantine but we will monitor them, we have a contingent plan in place in Kigali if this will happen and as a club, we will do our best to support the players even in our absence, so see you in the return leg.”

Before the team left for Kigali, head coach Mike Mutebi, assistant coach Badru Kabuye, goalkeeping coach Moses Oloya and first-team coach Jackson Magera had all tested positive for Covid-19 and were left behind alongside keeper Charles Lukwago, Denis Iguma, Kezironi Kizito, Brian Aheebwa, Stefano Mazengo, Hassan Matovu, Samson Kigozi, and Hassan Musana.