FootBiz newsletter #151: Why Senegal were stripped of their AFCON title

I think the BBC gets a lot of excessive and unfair criticism, much of it in bad faith, but I did have to laugh when I saw them reporting a “senior CAF figure” had “denounced the ‘abject’ decision” to strip Senegal of the AFCON title.

Because if you’re using that in the headline, you should probably mention that the senior CAF figure in question is Senegalese.

"In a situation like this, we have to fight against injustice,” said Augustin Senghor, literally the former head of the Senegalese football federation.

"Football is fair play, football is played is on the field, not in offices.

"What happened with CAF was unacceptable.”

And the thing is, I agree with him. Most people I’ve spoken to do!

But what a mess this is…

In case you have no idea what we’re talking about here, CAF stunned everyone this week by dropping a statement (halfway through the Champions League games) that they’d stripped Senegal of the AFCON title they won in dramatic circumstances back in January, and handed it to Morocco.

In case you can’t remember that far back (we’ve had a couple of small wars break out since) the final of the tournament was goalless between hosts Morocco and Senegal when Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty by VAR.

Having just had their own goal ruled out by VAR at the other end and monumentally aggrieved by both decisions, Senegal stormed off, leaving the pitch for a now-infamous 17-minute stint, before eventually being convinced to return for the penalty.

Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz proceeded to attempt a Panenka, which was caught by Edouard Mendy and the final went to extra time, where Senegal would win despite the best efforts of local ballboys and a partisan crowd baying for blood.

That was that. Or so we thought.

The postponement of the women’s AFCON (which should be taking place right now) has been blamed by many on Morocco’s sour grapes over their men’s final defeat. Indeed, the immediate reaction from one African journalist speaking to FootBiz on Tuesday evening was that this was CAF and FIFA trying to get Morocco back onside.

Brahim, the face of Morocco’s defeat, found out that he was now an African champion on the pitch at the Etihad after Madrid had completed their win over Manchester City. Senegal’s players took to social media to manifest their amusement and/or bemusement at the judgement.

That outrage was immediate but it has only persisted and, if anything, continued to grow. Senegal instantly said they will appeal the decision, the trophy has been taken to an army base to safeguard it with no plans to return it to CAF, and even the government came out with a pretty aggressive rejection of the verdict.

“This unprecedented decision clashes head-on with the cardinal principles on which sporting ethics are founded — equity, loyalty and respect to the truth on the pitch” said the statement released.

“It comes from a manifestly erroneous reading of the rules, leading to a grossly illegal and deeply unjust decision.”

Senegal will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and every legal eagle I have spoken to in the intervening days believes they have a good chance to win.

For now, the grounds on which Senegal were adjudged to have forfeited the final are that they left the pitch without permission from the officials. Morocco’s protest was that when Senegal left the field without permission, they forfeited the fixture (losing 3-0) and Morocco were champions regardless of what happened after that. And a CAF appeal board agreed with their reading of the situation.

As it happens, CAF had a fairly similar case go to CAS in 2019, when the Moroccan champions Wydad were actually the ones who walked off in protest at a goal awarded to Esperance Tunis in the African Champions League final.

In that instance, the referee on the pitch awarded the game to Esperance when Wydad walked off the pitch and didn’t return. CAF ruled that it must be replayed, but were defeated at CAS.

In the instance of the AFCON final, the fact that the referee allowed the game to be continued (and in this case, concluded) would usually be decisive. That was the point that most lawyers I spoke to tended to focus on, but much of the focus beyond the wording of the rulebook has been on why CAF did this.

Claude Le Roy is the outsider’s insider for African football. He has coached Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal and knows people all over the continent and his view, reported by the BBC, was that poor governance and FIFA’s meddling hand were to blame.

"For a long time with CAF, there is nobody of high quality driving this confederation and they are under control of Mr Infantino, and I think all problems are coming from there," he said.

But why would Infantino intervene?

As ever, the answer is his insatiable need for proximity to power. Oh, and World Cup revenues, which must never be threatened.

Infantino is known to be close with the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, and is currently being lobbied hard to give Africa only its second-ever World Cup final in 2030. Spain, one of the three major co-hosts alongside Morocco and Portugal (discounting the South American trio of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay who host one match each) would like to host the final at the renovated Santiago Bernabeu but a final at Morocco’s new, 115,000 capacity Hassan II Stadium would help Infantino’s legacy.

While the Swiss lawyer is not as obsessed with that idea as Sepp Blatter was, awarding the final to Morocco would make political sense in that CAF’s spotty governance has always been more subservient to FIFA and Infantino than UEFA have, whose actions are often the complete opposite, verging on antagonistic. If the revenue and prestige of a final in downtown Madrid weren’t so significant then you feel it could already have been awarded to the Moroccans rather than waiting until 2028, as FIFA have said they will, when we will have a clearer idea of the readiness of the Casablanca venue.

A North African journalist also noted to FootBiz that you can’t ignore the protests in Morocco. King Mohammed is facing a tougher time domestically than he has possibly ever, with youth unemployment of over 35% and Gen Z-led protests across the country at a perceived lack of investment in education and health (with the backdrop of a huge bill for the World Cup) as well as corruption and issues with the dirham, Morocco’s currency.

The distaste over losing the final at home to Senegal was, apparently, felt to be damaging to the domestic situation so soon after those protests but given how ludicrous it feels to strip a title from a team months later (after the referee let the game finish on the night) there is surely no real equivalent boost for the general population? The images of Brahim discovering he was now an AFCON winner on Tuesday night were more smiles of bemusement than outright joy, and the flip side of that is that you can remove their title on paper, but you can never take away the celebrations Senegal enjoyed in the wake of that triumph.

This one is going to be decided in Switzerland, by CAS, but whether Morocco’s slightly hollow-feeling victory is confirmed or the original decision is reinstated, African football has somehow manufactured itself a lose-lose situation whichever of its finalists is deemed to have won.

Table of Contents

• FIFA to mandate female coaches in women’s game

• Votes postponed on next two World Cup hosts

• WC host cities finally receive security funding

• Norwich called out for minimum wage breach

• PL to amend SCR rules

• UEFA next to go DTC

• Summer talks to standardise VAR across Europe

• Wednesday bidders meet EFL and IFR

• Government seek Abramovich meeting

• Man United stadium project progressing… slowly

• Proposal to fix English football

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