Mosimane ‘not worried’ about more disgraceful scenes with Sundowns fans

Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane says his only focus is on what happens on the field when his team meet Mamelodi Sundowns again in the Caf Champions League, and not whether he again receives an appalling reception from some Downs fans.

Disgraceful scenes greeted Mosimane and the Ahly team bus as they arrived in Atteridgeville for their 2020-21 Caf Champions League quarterfinal second leg match at Lucas Moripe Stadium in May 2021. Sundowns supporters held signs containing profanities and hurled verbal abuse at ex-Brazilians coach Mosimane and his family.

The incident prompted support for Mosimane from the EFF and an apology from Sundowns.

Mosimane has always maintained that the actions of that group of supporters were orchestrated by someone within Sundowns, without naming the alleged culprit.

Downs have been drawn to meet back-to-back defending champions Ahly again in Group A of the 2021-22 Champions League.

Mosimane, fresh from winning a historic second Fifa Club World Cup bronze medal in succession with a 4-0 playoff destruction of Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, spoke at a press conference of the SA Football Journalists' Association this week.

He was asked if he expects a better reception when Ahly travel to SA to meet Sundowns on February 25.

“You can't get worried about what you can't control,” the coach said. “I was at Sundowns for eight years, I know it inside out, and I know what happened. I know who organised that, and I know everything.

“And maybe you guys [the media] were looking at the supporters. No — supporters are being told what to do.

“They [Sundowns] know, I know. We all know. If you are in that club you know that I know what happened, because I spent my life there. So whether that comes [again] doesn't matter. What matters is what happens on the pitch.

“I was sworn at, my team was sworn at. People were swearing at us in the corridors when the players were lining up to go out. Sundowns' players were disappointed at what that person was doing, but he was being directed.

"... And I asked myself is that what you needed to receive when you have really contributed, you gave your life? I mean, I gave everything to that team.

“There's no team I gave all my life to like that. Even at SuperSport United I never gave that much, to make sure that I left the jersey in a better place. That's what's important for me.

"... And that's me, and I have done my best. And I was honest in that team. And maybe somehow that's my problem. Even Al Ahly has not received what I gave at Sundowns.

“But, it's OK, life is like that. You move on in life. I've got bigger things to worry about.

“I've got the Club World Cup to worry about rather than what's going to happen on that street in Atteridgeville.”

Mosimane had the last laugh in 2021. Ahly, with a 2-0 lead from the first leg in Cairo, drew 1-1 at Lucas Moripe to progress to the semifinals, and ended up winning the competition with a 3-0 win against Kaizer Chiefs in the final in Casablanca.

Sundowns' group clash against Ahly this month is unlikely to be held at Sundowns' grounds in Pretoria, which have Caf approval issues, and is scheduled for Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg.