Senegal calls for an independent corruption investigation after CAF strips its Cup of Nations title and awards it to Morocco.
SENEGAL’s government has demanded an independent international investigation into suspected corruption within the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following its decision to strip the country of its Africa Cup of Nations title.
The dramatic reversal, announced on Tuesday, saw CAF award the 2025 title to Morocco after citing regulations about leaving the field of play.
This stemmed from the final in Rabat on January 18, when several Senegalese players walked off the pitch in protest after the host nation was awarded a late penalty in second-half stoppage time.
Captain Sadio Mane eventually coaxed his teammates back onto the field, where Morocco missed the penalty before Pape Gueye scored an extra-time winner for a 1-0 Senegalese victory.
CAF stated that, after studying a Moroccan appeal, “the Senegal national team is declared to have forfeited the match” with the result “officially recorded as 3-0” in favour of Morocco.
Government spokeswoman Marie Rose Khady Fatou Faye called the decision “a grossly illegal and profoundly unjust decision” and “an unjustified attempt at dispossession”.
She argued that “by calling into question a result achieved at the end of a match that was properly played and won in accordance with the rules of the game, the CAF seriously undermines its own credibility”.
Faye confirmed that “Senegal will pursue all appropriate legal avenues, including before the competent international courts, to ensure that justice is served and that the primacy of sporting results is restored”.
The Senegalese Football Federation had earlier condemned the decision as “unjust, unprecedented and unacceptable” and stated it would appeal “as soon as possible” to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
