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Al Ahly breaking rules to destabilise Sundowns - report

Cape Town - Al Ahly are reportedly using under-handed tactics by changing the venue of Saturday's CAF Champions League second leg quarterfinal tie against Mamelodi Sundowns.

The match was initially scheduled to be played at the Egyptian Army Stadium in Suez but has now been switched to the El Arab Stadium in Alexandria.

The El Arab Stadium is 244 kilometres away from Cairo which contravenes CAF regulations which state match venues must be 200 kilometres or less away from the airport.

However, CAF are said to have approved the change which seems surprising given it is a breach of their own regulations.

The laws also state that a venue has to be named 10 days before a knockout encounter.

As such, Brazilians management are not best pleased with the situation and have written a complaint to CAF.

Sundowns acting general manager Yogesh Singh told SowetanLIVE website: "We only found out on Sunday that it was moved from Suez to Alexandria. According to the rules this is not allowed.

"This is what we go through in this competition and CAF allows that somehow even though it's not according to the rules.

"I wrote to CAF yesterday demanding an explanation and we want them to be liable for our costs. You can imagine we have already made hotel bookings and we have written to SAFA as well to let them know about these shenanigans.

"We are busy working on changing a few things like the hotel and training facility."

Despite the changes, Sundowns are in full control of the contest having won the first leg 5-0 last weekend and appear to be favourites to progress to the final four.

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