The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially awarded the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title to Morocco, overturning Senegal\u2019s victory following a dramatic and controversial final.<\/p>\n
The decision comes two months after the chaotic showdown on January 18, 2026, in Rabat, which initially saw Senegal claim a 1\u20130 win to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n
The turning point in the match came late in normal time when Morocco were awarded a penalty. In protest of the referee\u2019s decision, Senegal\u2019s players\u2014backed by their head coach\u2014walked off the pitch, bringing the game to a halt.<\/p>\n
After some delay, Senegal returned to continue the match. Morocco\u2019s Brahim Diaz stepped up to take the penalty but failed to convert, sending the game into extra time.<\/p>\n
Senegal eventually secured a narrow 1\u20130 victory and were crowned champions on the night. However, Morocco immediately contested the result, filing an official appeal with CAF.<\/p>\n
CAF\u2019s Appeal Board has now ruled in Morocco\u2019s favour, determining that Senegal\u2019s actions during the match constituted a breach of tournament regulations.<\/p>\n
As a result, Senegal have been deemed to have forfeited the final. The match has officially been recorded as a 3\u20130 win for Morocco.<\/p>\n
This ruling means Morocco are now recognized as African champions for the first time since 1976.<\/p>\n
In its detailed judgment, CAF stated that:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Morocco\u2019s appeal was valid and upheld<\/p>\n
\u2022 Earlier disciplinary rulings were overturned<\/p>\n
\u2022 Senegal violated competition regulations through their conduct<\/p>\n
\u2022 The protest lodged by Morocco\u2019s football federation was justified<\/p>\n
\u2022 The final result has been officially changed to a 3\u20130 victory for Morocco<\/p>\n
Additional Sanctions and Adjustments<\/p>\n
CAF also reviewed several related incidents from the match:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Moroccan player Isma\u00ebl Saibari was found guilty of misconduct and handed a two-match suspension (with one match suspended). His earlier $100,000 fine was cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Morocco\u2019s federation was held accountable for the behavior of ball boys, though the fine was reduced to $50,000.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A separate $100,000 fine related to interference near the VAR review area was upheld.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A fine for a laser incident was reduced to $10,000.<\/p>\n
With the ruling now finalized, Morocco\u2019s long wait for continental glory comes to an end, while Senegal\u2019s triumph has been erased from the record books in one of the most historical reversals in AFCON existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially awarded the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title to Morocco, overturning Senegal\u2019s victory following a dramatic and controversial final. The decision comes two months after the chaotic showdown on January 18, 2026, in Rabat, which initially saw Senegal claim a 1\u20130 win to lift the trophy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6317,7],"tags":[4581,7849,7873,8134],"class_list":["post-98152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","category-news","tag-caf","tag-morocco","tag-senegal","tag-strip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}