Senior African football official slams the decision to strip Senegal of AFCON title

Martin Macdonald

• 19 Mar 2026 07:15 CDT
• 5 min read

News

A senior official within the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has called the decision to strip Senegal of their Africa Cup of Nations title an "injustice".

Earlier this week, Senegal were left stunned when CAF announced that Morocco would be named as AFCON champions, officially awarded a 3-0 victory.

The situation stems from the controversial final between Senegal and Morocco, which the former won 1-0 in extra time.

Deep into injury time in the second period, Morocco were awarded a controversial penalty after Brahim Diaz went down inside the box following a pull from El Hadji Malick Diouf. It was soft in the eyes of many and although the Real Madrid man went down rather easily, he was being held by the defender.

blockquote class="twitter-tweet">

Senegal’s win in the #AFCON25 final will be remembered for their decision to walk off during the game after a controversial penalty decision. Here’s how it unfolded. pic.twitter.com/kw1rGxQCTn

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 19, 2026

Everyone of a Senegal persuasion was outraged. The players surrounded the referee in protest and the small batch of away supporters in the corner of the stadium even had to be subdued by riot police after threatening to enter the pitch.

Senegal manager Pape Thiaw took things one step further, though, as he apparently ordered his players to leave the pitch. Most of of them did so, with some even going back into the changing room.

Talisman Sadio Mane kept the peace and eventually convinced his team-mates to return and a good job he did, too, as Diaz missed the subsequent penalty with a failed Panenka before Senegal went on to win the final 1-0 after a solitary goal scored in extra-time.

Months later, a statement from CAF confirmed that Senegal had been stripped of their title after an appeal from Morocco.

“The CAF Appeal Board decided that in application of Article 84 of the Regulations of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, the Senegal National Team is declared to have forfeited the Final Match of the AFCON Morocco 2025, with the result of the Match being recorded as 3–0 in favour of the Morocco,” an official statement reads.

CAF indicates that Article 82 of AFCON’s rules, which states that if a team refuses to play or leaves the ground before the end of regulation time without the referee’s authority, it will be considered the loser and eliminated from the competition.

In turn, this triggered Article 84, which states that any team violating Article 82 will be permanently eliminated and will lose the match 3-0.

Augustin Senghor, a CAF executive committee member and former head of the Senegalese Football Federation, told the BBC:

"In a situation like this, we have to fight against injustice. Football is fair play, football is played is on the field, not in offices.

"What happened with CAF was unacceptable.

"When you see a committee taking such a decision in violation of our rules, in violation of the FIFA laws of the game, to take the trophy and give it to Morocco, I think it is something very abject.

"We have to denounce it."

Senegal’s ground for appeal

Senegal are prepared to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland to receive a definitive judgement on the incident.

South African journalist Melissa Reddy has revealed the grounds they are likely to appeal on.

She explained: “Senegal are likely to argue that they did not abandon the game, the match was completed by the referee’s whistle.

“They can say Article 82 was misapplied because the game continued under the same circumstances and reached its natural end.

“The referee allowing Senegal back on the pitch and Morocco happily continuing the game will be used to state the match - and result - was valid.

“As the final was completed, they can argue the integrity of the game was upheld.

“They can also claim changing the winner of a completed final is an extreme overreach by the Appeal Board. And that the punishment for a delay - not a refusal to play as they finished the game - is excessive.”

Senegal’s argument is likely to boil down to this interpretation of Articles 82 and 84. Did they leave the pitch in a manner that counts as abandonment, or what this a temporary interruption that the referee tolerated? Once play restarted, was the “refusal to play” condition not met?

Recent CAS rulings on match abandonment suggest Senegal’s claims is at least arguable, but overturning a confederation’s application of its own rules remains rare.

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