{"id":833028,"date":"2026-03-18T02:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/833028\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T02:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:14:14","slug":"senegal-stripped-of-africa-cup-of-nations-title-over-walkout-protest-in-final-africa-cup-of-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/833028\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal stripped of Africa Cup of Nations title over walkout protest in final | Africa Cup of Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morocco have been awarded a 3-0 win in this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations final<\/a> after Senegal were sensationally stripped of the title in an unprecedented ruling.<\/p>\n

The Confederation of African Football announced on Tuesday evening that its appeal board had decided that Senegal are \u201cdeclared to have forfeited the final\u201d that was held in Rabat in January after the head coach, Pape Thiaw, and some of his players left the pitch for 15 minutes in protest at Morocco being awarded a penalty. They eventually returned after being implored to by the captain, Sadio Man\u00e9, with Brahim D\u00edaz\u2019s subsequent spot\u2011kick being saved to send the final into extra time, when Pape Gueye scored the winning goal.<\/p>\n

At an initial disciplinary hearing, Caf imposed fines of more than $1m and bans for Senegal and Morocco players and officials but left the result untouched. But in a statement, it confirmed that Senegal had been stripped of their title. The statement read: \u201cThe Caf appeal board decided that in application of article 84 of the regulations of the Caf Africa Cup of Nations<\/a>, the Senegal national team is declared to have forfeited the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025, with the result of the match being recorded as 3\u20130 in favour of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Royale Marocaine de Football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is declared that the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration S\u00e9n\u00e9galaise de Football, through the conduct of its team, infringed article 82 of the regulations of the Africa Cup of Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senegal captain, Sadio Man\u00e9, lifted the Africa Cup of Nations trophy on the night of the final. Photograph: Jalal Morchidi\/EPA<\/p>\n

Senegal are expected to appeal against the decision to the court of arbitration for sport. Meanwhile, Moussa Niakhat\u00e9, who played in the final, appeared to hit out at Caf\u2019s decision. \u201cCome and get them,\u201d the Lyon defender wrote on his Instagram account with a picture of him holding the Afcon trophy. \u201cThey are crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost a million supporters lined the streets of Dakar to celebrate Senegal\u2019s second Afcon title a day after the final in Rabat. Morocco had not won the competition since 1976 and been heavy favourites as hosts.<\/p>\n

The Moroccan football federation said in a statement: \u201cThe federation wishes to recall that its approach has never been intended to challenge the sporting performance of the teams participating in this competition, but solely to request the application of the competition\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federation reaffirms its commitment to respecting the rules, ensuring clarity in the competitive framework, and maintaining stability within African competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morocco have been awarded a 3-0 win in this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations final after Senegal were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-833028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116247767629985008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}