The French newspaper Le Monde reported many details surrounding the final match of the 2025 African Cup of Nations, which was held in Morocco last January.
The Senegalese team had won and won the title after defeating Morocco 1-0 in extra time, but the Confederation of African Football (CAF) took the decision to withdraw the title from Senegal, consider it withdrawn, and award the title to Morocco, which sparked widespread controversy in the recent period.
The French newspaper revealed on Sunday that it had obtained five anonymous official reports related to the final match that took place on January 18, confirming that there were sharp disagreements within CAF regarding this decision.
The newspaper explained that the match between the two teams was full of excitement, and that the Senegalese players left the field in protest against the referee’s decision to award a penalty kick to Morocco at the end of the match, which led to them being absent from the field for ten minutes. Then Brahim Diaz missed the penalty kick, before Pape Gueye scored the winning goal for Senegal in extra time, and thus the Senegalese team won the title on the field, which was later appealed.
The newspaper pointed out that before the CAF Appeals Committee issued its ruling deeming Morocco the winner, the Moroccan Federation submitted a forty-page memorandum through Tarek El Amin, the Federation’s General Secretary, which included statements by Olivier Savary, Chairman of the CAF Referees Committee, who said that he had received official instructions not to warn Senegal players, as that might have led to the expulsion of players who had already received warnings, in order to preserve the progress of the match upon their return to the field.
The newspaper wondered whether the referees had been subjected to pressure not to punish the Senegal players and complete the final match, and confirmed that this matter was part of what the CAF Appeals Committee relied on to award the title to the Moroccan national team.
The Senegalese Football Federation announced its intention to resort to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to decide on this case.
