The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday, October 16, ordered the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to postpone the CAF Confederation Cup second preliminary round tie between Mauritania's AS Douanes and Algeria's CR Belouizdad, according to a statement from Guinea's Hafia FC, which filed the appeal.
The first leg had been scheduled for Saturday, October 17, in Nouakchott, with the return leg due between October 23 and 25. According to the statement, the court issued an order for provisional measures in case TAS 2026/A/12858 pending a ruling on the merits. No new date has been announced so far.
The dispute dates back to September 11, when the Douanes delegation was unable to travel to Conakry for the return leg of the first preliminary round against Hafia after the plane chartered to carry the team ran off the runway on landing in Nouakchott. CAF ruled the incident a case of force majeure and rescheduled the match. Played on September 19, it ended in a 1-0 win for Douanes, who went through 3-2 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Nouakchott.
Hafia argues that the Douanes' absence stemmed from avoidable organisational failures rather than force majeure. The Guinean club said the court noted that CAF's force majeure decision "contained no reasoning" and that its appeal to the CAF Appeal Board, filed on September 16, had gone unanswered. Hafia called the order "an important victory" and said it would pursue the case to the end.
