There is significant controversy across African football following developments from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal national football team and Morocco national football team.
During the final, Morocco were awarded a penalty, which led to protests from Senegal. In response, Senegal players temporarily left the field of play. Although they later returned and went on to win the match, the incident became the subject of a formal appeal.
Softfootball gathered that after the match, the Moroccan Football Federation filed an appeal, arguing that Senegal should forfeit the game for leaving the field without authorisation from the referee.
Two months later, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Morocco’s appeal had been accepted. As a result, Senegal were stripped of the title, and Morocco were awarded a 3–0 victory and officially declared AFCON 2025 champions.
The decision was based on Articles 82 and 84 of CAF regulations.
Article 82 states;
I, for any reason whatsoever a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without authorisation of the referee, it shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition. The same shall apply for teams previously disqualified by decision of CAF.
Article 84 states;
The team which contravenes the provisions of Article 82/83 shall be eliminated for good from the competition. This team will lose its match by 3:0 unless the opponent has scored a more advantageous result at the time when the match was interrupted, in this case the score will be maintained. The organising committee may adopt further measures.
Based on these provisions, CAF ruled in favour of Morocco, enforcing a 3–0 result and overturning the original outcome.
Following this decision, attention has turned to International Football Association Board (IFAB), with discussions expected on whether referees should be granted more authority in handling similar situations where teams leave the pitch during matches.
In summary, this has been treated as a federation-level decision rather than one determined during the match itself, and as it stands, Morocco are officially the AFCON 2025 champions.
