Head coach Rulani Mokwena has hit back at questions over 'unfair officiating' in the first leg of the African Football League tie against Al Ahly, where Sundowns walked away 1-0 winners.
The Red Devils had gone as far as lodging a formal complaint over what they described as unfair officiating during the loss to Sundowns.
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At the pre-match press conference ahead of the second leg to be played in Egypt, a question posed to Mokwena was if he felt that the referee had aided Sundowns.
In a blockbuster response, Mokwena went into detail of several questionable calls by the match officials on the day.
"I am very surprised that Al Ahly complain about everything," Mokwena said.
"Before the first leg, Al Ahly complained that we complained that we played 3:00 and yet they are allowed to fixture the game at their time in the second leg that suits them, you hear no complaints from Mamelodi Sundowns.
"I am surprised that Al Ahly is always complaining about the referees only when they lose. Jose Mourinho once said that once a big club starts to look for other factors apart from football, when they lose, they start losing their status as a big club.
"I hope that is not the case for Al Ahly because they are the flagship of African football.
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"The rest of the world in Europe looks at Al Ahly as a reflection of what African football represents and so my question after the complaint is, what is really the intention?
"I can go through a list of incidents where the referees did not act in what I thought would be the just way and first is to acknowledge that [Mohammed] Hany comes into the match with a yellow card and the rules are that if he gets a second yellow, he misses the next match.
"He makes it clear foul at 10:43 against Thapelo Maseko. No yellow. He makes another foul 39:53 against the same Thapelo Maseko, stops a promising attack and gets no yellow card.
"27:8, there's a sliding tackle from [Marwan] Ateya on Gaston Sirino in front of the box, with no yellow card. [Mohamed] Abdelmonem couple of seconds into the 27th minute exactly fouls Themba Zwane. No yellow card. 31 minute, 04. Late slide tackle on Gaston Sirino, no yellow card.
"36:16, Abdemonem pulls Thapelo Maseko down, in front of the box, no yellow card. All of these are promising attacks and situations where the offender should get a yellow card.
"The laws of the game are very clear. Persisted fouling is a questionable offense and I would say that the coach being as smart as he is, he pulls off honey because he on the edge."
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Mokwena read further incidents where he believes Sundowns were hard done by the officiating and pointed out that Al Ahly's 13 fouls by the end of the match, only received one yellow card.
"I think if there is a team that needs to complain it should be Mamelodi Sundowns, but we don't complain," Mokwena added.
The second leg of the tie is set to be played on Wednesday. Kick-off is at 20:00 (SA time).
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