The DR Congo club were kicked out of the Champions League last week, and Mamelodi Sundowns inserted into their place, because they used an ineligible player in the early rounds of this year’s competition.
Midfielder Idrissa Traore, who they signed from Stade Malien in December, was supposed to sit out three matches of a four-match suspension carried over from last year’s African Confederation Cup.
But Vita played him and after Stade Malien complained to CAF, the Congolese club were expelled just hours before last Tuesday’s draw in Cairo for the group phase of the competition.
"When we look at the facts alleged against us, it is the fault of our national federation (Fecoca) as they were informed by the Confederation of African Football in January already of the players who had sanctions against them," said the club’s general secretary Patrick Banishayi on local radio. "We do not understand why our federation never informed the four Congolese clubs participating in African club competitions of the contents of the list.”
He also accused Stade Malien of first trying to extort money from them before then reporting them to CAF.
"The Malian team denounced us well after the game in which we used him. First they came to us and said 'the player was suspended, if you want us to close our mouth, you must pay us', and demanded an exorbitant sum. We could not give in to blackmail ... we could not take the risk to give this club a lot of money when they gave us no guarantees regarding their silence," added Banishayi.
One result of the disqualification is a decision by AS Vita to stop the purchase of promising Rwanda striker Ernest Sugira, who they were about to buy to strengthen their squad for the group phase of the Champions League.