CAF Disciplinary Board v. Al Ahly SC

Al Ahly beat Al Hilal of Sudan 3-0 on 1 April 2023 in their TotalEnergies CAF Champions League group-stage fixture, a result that eliminated Al Hilal from the competition and sent Al Ahly through to the quarter-finals. In the aftermath, Al Hilal lodged an official complaint with CAF alleging racist chants directed at the club and its supporters, and disorderly scenes around the match more broadly. Separately, water bottles were thrown onto the field during the game — conduct attributed to both sets of supporters, not one side alone.

After evidence was led and both parties presented their case, the CAF Disciplinary Board rejected Al Hilal's racism complaint outright, finding no valid grounds for it and clearing Al Ahly of the allegation. On the conduct that was proven, the Board fined Al Ahly USD 20,000 for the throwing of objects and a further USD 100,000 for the club's lack of order and security — a combined USD 120,000 — citing Article 83 of the CAF Disciplinary Code, under which the host club bears responsibility for organisation and security inside and outside the stadium before, during, and after the match. In the same ruling, the Board separately fined Al Hilal USD 50,000 for its own supporters' object-throwing and for what CAF's statement described as inappropriate conduct by the club's own players and officials during the same fixture.

The disparity between Al Ahly's two fines is instructive on its own terms: a comparatively modest USD 20,000 for the specific bottle-throwing incident, against a much larger USD 100,000 for the underlying security failure that allowed it to happen at all — treating a single stadium incident as evidence of two separate breaches, the specific supporter conduct itself and the host club's broader institutional failure to prevent it. That both clubs were fined from the same match, while the complaining club's own racism allegation was rejected for lack of evidence, is a reminder that filing a complaint with CAF carries no guarantee of a favourable outcome, and does not exempt the complaining club from scrutiny of its own supporters' conduct at the same fixture.