Petro de Luanda's head coach has revealed the latest regarding their ongoing suspension amid bribery allegations levelled against them as they prepare for their crunch African Football League encounter against Mamelodi Sundowns.
This past weekend, the Angolan giants got their AFL campaign underway when they took on the DStv Premiership champions in the first leg of their quarter-final, losing 2-0, but not many know that Os Tricolores are playing in one of the continent's most competitive spectacles while they are currently suspended from their own top division.
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The Angolan giants are suspended from their top flight for two years due to the 17-time champions' alleged involvement in corruption schemes, and ahead of their crunch second-leg quarterfinal against Sundowns, their coach insisted that the issue has taken its toll on the side.
"It's a little bit difficult to understand what is really happening, because we are coach and players," Alexander Santos told members of the media.
"We are in the field and we are doing our jobs, our training, playing our friendly games, a lot of friendly games.
"But we don't really know what's happening at the top of the hierarchy of the footballing structure in Angola. It's very difficult to understand that it's been five months since our last game in the Girabola.
"Our last game of the Girabola was the 21st of May and now we don't have any games.
"The justification about that is that there are some allegations of bribery between some kind of people or some kind of teams.
"There is a lot of confusion but I think we should be starting the Girabola next week, but this is tough for all Angolan teams, not only for us. It's for us, it's for the other teams who are in the Confederation Cup.
"For us, we have to face it, we have to see off that situation with bravery and motivation to play these games as if they are finals.
"It's difficult to get motivation without games because at a high level, you cannot prepare for a team without games. We cannot improve our tactical systems, we cannot see what is wrong in our training processes.
"But as I said in Angola, we will never blame our situation on our losses."
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The second leg of the AFL quarter-final between Petro and Sundowns will kick off at 16:00 (SA time) on Tuesday afternoon.
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