Hearts of Oak have filed a scathing four-page protest to the Confederation of African Football, demanding a replay of their Champions League first round match against Etoile du Congo in Brazzaville at a neutral venue and calling for sanctions against the Congolese federation.

The Ghanaian side detailed a catalogue of accusations against their Congolese hosts, including a hostile reception, and condemned the match officials from Angola and Congo Democratic Republic.

Etoile won the return 5-1 to knock out the African champions 6-4 on aggregate.

Hearts had protested twice before the match, complaining to CAF over the selection of the Angolan referees (the winner was due to face an Angolan side) and African football legend Pierre Kalala Mukendi, who was the match commissioner from Congo DR.

'Shabby' hotel

A second protest was sent after Hearts arrived in Brazzaville and reported they were lodged in a police barracks and then moved to a shabby hotel.

Hearts of Oak secretary-general Ashford Tettey-Oku has written to CAF to explain some of the problems. "The Congolese claimed all hotels were booked because of a Peace and Solidarity Conference?we later stayed in the same hotel with the referees, but we paid ourselves.

"Hooligans fought us to disrupt our training and we had to leave?our bags were searched for juju as we entered the stadium, meanwhile our goalpost was littered with pieces of pork," Tettey-Oku reported to CAF in the protest.

Hearts have also demanded over $9,000 from the Congolese federation as refund for their accommodation.

The organising committee of the CAF inter-clubs competitions will meet in Cairo next month to take certain decisions, but it might be too late for Hearts to prevent Etoile playing their second round tie against Petro Atletico of Angola this month.