Senegal will ask the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday to hand back the Africa Cup of Nations crown they won on the pitch in Rabat, nine months after the most chaotic final in the tournament’s history.
Main image: DGBN graphic. Photo: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The closed-door hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 8 October pits the Lions of Teranga against the Confederation of African Football (CAF), with hosts Morocco also making their case. According to Reuters, Senegal want to be reinstated as champions.
From champions to forfeit
Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 after extra time in January’s final. Late in normal time, however, a penalty was awarded against them, and their players walked off the pitch in protest, with several heading to the dressing room. Play was halted for 14 minutes before the team returned.
Morocco missed the spot kick, the match went to extra time and Senegal scored the winner. Two months later, CAF’s Appeal Board ruled that by leaving the field Senegal had forfeited the final. It overturned the result, recorded a 3-0 win for Morocco and declared the hosts champions.
Senegal lodged their appeal with CAS on 25 March. It has taken more than six months to reach a hearing.
The legal battle lines
At the heart of the case is a CAF rule stating that a team which refuses to play, or leaves the ground before the regular end of a match without the referee’s permission, is considered the loser and is eliminated from the competition.
Senegal’s lawyers are expected to argue that the rule must be read strictly, and that a temporary walk-off is not the same as abandoning a match. They are also likely to point to the Laws of the Game, under which a referee’s decisions on incidents of play are final. Morocco are expected to argue the opposite: that leaving the field without authorisation means defeat, even if the team later comes back.
The three-member panel is chaired by French jurist Gérald Simon, sitting with Italian international law professor Luigi Fumagalli and German lawyer Ulrich Haas, a law professor at the University of Zurich.
No verdict on the day
Fans hoping for a quick answer will have to wait. CAS said its panel would begin deliberating after the hearing and could not yet say when a decision would be issued, only that it would not come on the day.
Why it matters
The case goes beyond one trophy. Its outcome will shape how far African football’s governing body can rewrite a result decided on the pitch, and how protests by players are treated in future. For millions of Senegalese at home and across the diaspora, from Paris to New York, it is also about whether their second continental title stands.
Both nations have already moved on to the next cycle. Senegal drew with Mozambique in the opening AFCON 2027 qualifier under new coach Patrick Vieira on 25 September, then won 1-0 in Ethiopia four days later. Morocco have won both of their opening games, against Gabon and Lesotho.