Riveiro Condemns Post-Match Brawl: “Unacceptable Behavior”
Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro condemned the post-match scuffle that erupted at Orlando Stadium following their CAF Champions League quarter-final victory over MC Alger on Wednesday, stating it was “unacceptable.”
A violent altercation broke out after Pirates secured their semi-final berth with a 1-0 aggregate win. Punches were thrown, and a Pirates member was reportedly struck in the face before police intervened.
The disturbances continued in the tunnel, raising concerns about potential CAF sanctions for the “barbaric behavior” witnessed in Soweto.
Now, we are probably going to the space to know who started the fight. But I think it doesn’t matter. Like I said, for me, for us, for my group, football is something special, something that cannot be dirty.
“With this type of behaviours, it is something that is unacceptable. Whatever happened, like I said, probably, everybody was making mistakes outside, but those behaviours must stay as far as possible.
“There were tackles far from the sport because we don’t really need it. We have to learn how to win, we have to learn how to lose. We have to accept the results, whatever it is coming and again, I don’t really know because I was sitting on the bench when everything started.
“I was trying to understand the dimension of what we just achieved few seconds before and all of the sudden everything was a mess in front of me.
“But probably we will see some pictures and I hope the people that find themselves in those pictures are embarrassed enough to know not to repeat it again and we can have a normal football game like every time we are coming to the stadium.
“Like I said before, our fans are good example all round the world about what it means football game – the way to come to the stadium and enjoy with good spirit, good mood, that’s it.
“Like I said, I don’t want to say much because I don’t have the information right now. Hopefully it is a last time we see this type of scenes in Orlando.”
Pirates will now face Pyramids in the semi-finals, with the first leg scheduled for 18 April at Orlando Stadium and the second leg on 25 April.
This marks a historic moment as two South African teams, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates, have reached the CAF Champions League semi-finals in the same year, following Sundowns’ victory over ES Esperance on Tuesday.
