Senegal to appeal CAF ruling that handed AFCON title to Morocco

Senegal’s football authorities and government are preparing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) overturned the result of the Africa Cup of Nations final and awarded the title to Morocco.CAF’s appeals board this week ruled Senegal had forfeited the January 18 final in Rabat after players left the pitch for around 14 minutes in protest at a late penalty decision, converting Senegal’s 1-0 extra-time win into a 3-0 default defeat.Abdoulaye Seydou Sow, the Senegal football federation’s secretary general, said: “This is a travesty; this decision is based on absolutely nothing. It has no legal foundation.”Senegal’s government has called for an independent international investigation into what it described as suspected corruption within CAF, arguing the ruling undermines confidence in the sport’s governance and the credibility of African competitions.The dispute centres on a chaotic sequence late in the final when Senegal had a goal ruled out before Morocco were awarded a potentially decisive penalty, leading to confrontations on the pitch and an attempt by supporters to get on to the field.Senegal’s players returned and the match was completed, with Senegal scoring the winner in extra time, but Morocco appealed and CAF’s appeals body sided with the hosts under tournament regulations that sanction teams for leaving the field without authorisation.Augustin Senghor, a Caf executive committee member and former head of the Senegalese Football Federation, told BBC World Service's Newsday: "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."The Royal Moroccan Football Federation has welcomed the outcome and said its appeal was intended to ensure competition rules were applied consistently, rather than to challenge the sporting merit of the match.Senegal’s federation has said it will file at CAS in Lausanne, a route that can suspend or overturn sports governing body decisions and which often becomes the de facto final arbiter in cross-border governance disputes.The case lands at a sensitive moment for CAF, with the governing body working to grow commercial revenues and improve perceptions of integrity, officiating standards and competition management.It also raises questions for future tournament operations, including how confederation regulations interact with the Laws of the Game and the finality of referee decisions, as well as the threshold for retroactively changing results after a match has been completed.Morocco’s title, if upheld, would stand as their second AFCON crown and their first in 50 years, while Senegal’s challenge is set to become one of the most high-profile governance battles in African football in recent years.