Orlando Pirates coach Ouaddou cries for help after ‘unfair treatment’ – We can’t continue

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou is unhappy with the way away teams are treated in the CAF Champions League competitions.

Bucs are set to face La Cure Waves away in Mauritius on Sunday in the first preliminary round of the continental competition.

🏆 #𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐂𝐀𝐅𝐂𝐋 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 (𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐠)

🆚 La Cure Waves 🇲🇺
🗓️ Sunday,06 September 2026
⏱️ 15:30 🇲🇺 | 13H30 🇿🇦 SAST
🏟️ Côte-d'Or National Sports Complex

⚫⚪🔴⭐#OrlandoPirates#OnceAlways pic.twitter.com/wBs8Nh8qX4

— Orlando Pirates (@orlandopirates) September 4, 2026

Last season, Bucs reached the second preliminary round but were undone on penalties by St. Eloi Lupopo after a 3-3 aggregate score. The Democratic Republic of Congo outfit won at home 3-0 before the Soweto giants responded in the second leg.

However, Bucs were unhappy with the way they were treated away, and coach Abdeslam Ouaddou hopes it will not be the same.

How Pirates were treated was not fair

“The top priority will definitely be to keep our league title. But having said that, the Champions League was an area last season where we were a bit disappointing,” Ouaddou told FARPost.

“I don’t want to come back to what happened at Lupopo and how we lost the game there and the fact that the game was not on TV. How we were treated there was not fair. But I don’t want to comment on that issue. 

“It [Champions League] is something that is very important to us, so we will have to focus very well on the preliminary games to get to the group stage. It’s really another target for us.” 

CAF should act

The Moroccan insists the football governing body in Africa should step up and help rectify the situation.

“First of all. We will have to prepare our players psychologically about what they can expect when we go to other countries. It’s our job,” Ouaddou added.

“But what I want to go deeper regarding that subject is, if we want to have our African football growing, we definitely need CAF to investigate and control some games being played away. We cannot continue to have this kind of treatment. 

“I never spoke about that, but it was really disrespectful to sports values. We want to avoid that. If we want to grow, we need CAF to come in to find solutions to how they can monitor games for the sake of the growth of our African football,” Ouaddou concluded.