Egypt’s Ismaily thrown out of Champions League over crowd trouble

Egyptian club Ismaily has been disqualified from the African Champions League after fans forced the abandonment of Friday’s home fixture against Club Africain, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Wednesday.

Ismaily fans threw stones and water bottles at match officials and the Tunisian club’s players, forcing Cameroon referee Neant Alioum to order the teams into the changing rooms in stoppage time with the visitors leading 2-1.

CAF expelled Ismaily from this season’s competition, having disqualified Algerian side Entente Sportive de Setif after similar scenes in a match against Mamelodi Sundowns in 2016.

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Ismaily’s results in Group C have been annulled, leaving Algerians CS Constantine top with six points from two games. Club African and DR Congo side TP Mazembe now have no points from one game. TP Mazembe had beaten Ismaily 2-0.

Egypt was named as hosts of the 2019 African Nations Cup earlier this month despite a number of incidents involving unruly fans in recent years that forced local officials to limit the number of spectators at domestic fixtures to 5,000.