TANZANIA's pursuit of an impressive stint in the 2023–24 CAF Champions League was brought to an end last weekend after the country's two outfits- Simba SC and Yanga- were knocked out of the last eight phase.

Simba SC succumbed to 3-0 aggregate loss the premier cintinental club tournament defending champion, Al Ahly, as the latter cruised to 1-0 victory in the first leg and wounded up with a comprehensive 2-0 victory in the rematch.

Tanzania's other envoy in the competition, Yanga, was knocked out by Mamelodi Sundowns. The spot kicks had to decide the pulsating two-leg encounter given the two teams shared the spoils with a barren draw in the two legs.

The South African football giant eventually had the last laugh in the spot kicks, having notched 3-2 victory to dim Yanga's hopes of becoming the first outfit in Tanzania to book a place in the presigious showdown's semi-finals.

There was though a bit of controversy during the second leg which was played in Pretoria, given Yanga looked to have found Mamelodi Sundowns' back of the net in the 57th minute of the game but the goal was disallowed by the referee.

Yanga's midfielder, Stephane Aziz Ki, beat Mamelodi Sundowns' shot stopper, Ronwen Williams, with a left-foot effort from inside the box, the ball hit the crossbar and looked to have gone over the goalline.

Ki, who was lurking around the South African club's box, had made good use of forward Kennedy Musonda's center from the left flank, got past defenders and rifled past Williams.

After a brief consultation with officials in the control room, the referee deemed the ball to have not wholly gone past the goalline and thereby disallowed the goal, to the dismay of Yanga's fooballers and their supporters.

A lot has been said by soccer stakeholders concerning the goal which was disallowed, with a section of them that root for Yanga feeling their club was unfairly eliminated.

There are a lot of questions from the football followers, who are keen on finding out whether East African teams are still regarded as underdogs.

The performance shown by the Jangwani Street side in this season's premier continental competition's last eight has brought about such a query from the football lovers.

Were there plans to see to it Tanzania's squads battling it out in the 2023/24 CAF Champions League hardly make their presence felt in the showpiece?

Tanzania was so far the only country that had two teams featuring in the prestigious continental club tournament, which comes third after AFCON and African Football League in terms of prominence.

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) defines goal-line technology as a technical means of instantly determining whether the whole of the ball has crossed the goal-line or not.

Such a technology unfortunately has yet to be deployed in Africa inter-club tournaments and its absence has led to the presence of controversies, including the one that came about in the 2023–24 CAF Champions League last eight second leg, which had Mamelodi Sundowns hosting Yanga.