Senegal and Morocco face CAS battle over AFCON 2025 title

Senegal and Morocco will face each other at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday as the dispute over the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title reaches its latest stage.

The CAS hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, will examine Senegal’s appeal against the decision to award Morocco a 3-0 victory by forfeit following the controversial AFCON final.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time but will take place behind closed doors after both parties requested privacy. CAS has not given a date for its ruling.

Matthieu Reeb, the CAS Director General, said supporters in Senegal, Morocco and across Africa would have to wait for the outcome.

“I know that the wait for supporters, both Senegalese and Moroccan as well as all African fans, is very long,” Reeb told the press, while saying CAS wanted to deliver “a reasoned decision as soon as possible”: “it should still take a few days, or even a few weeks,” he warned.

The case follows a dramatic final in Rabat on 18 January, when Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 after extra time.

The match descended into controversy after a penalty was awarded to Morocco during added time. Brahim Diaz missed the spot-kick, while several Senegal players left the field in protest before returning about 15 minutes later.

Morocco’s football federation subsequently appealed to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

On 17 March, the CAF appeals jury awarded Senegal a 3-0 defeat by forfeit, citing Articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON regulations. Those provisions prohibit a team from “leaving the field before the regulatory end of the match without the authorization of the referee”.

The Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) strongly rejected the decision, describing it as “the most blatant administrative robbery in the history of our sport”.

The federation later presented the trophy to supporters from its diaspora at the Stade de France in March before taking its case to CAS.

Sports law researcher Thibault Ulrich of the University of Lausanne said the CAF appeals jury had taken an “extremely strict reading” of the AFCON regulations.

He argued that the decision did not sufficiently consider the actions of referee Jean-Jacques Ndala, who allowed the match to restart after the Senegal players returned to the pitch.

The dispute also raises questions about the authority of referees and whether sporting decisions made during a match can later be overturned by disciplinary bodies.

Law 5.2 of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) states that “the referee’s decisions on matters relating to the game are final, including the awarding of a goal and the result of the match.”

The IFAB rules also state that “the referee cannot change a restart of play” even if the official later believes the restart was incorrect.

Ulrich said this principle is important to protecting the integrity of competitions.

“The goal is to preserve the interest in the competitions,” he said. “Their outcome must be decided on the field and in the moment, not by judges after the fact, otherwise we’ll lose all the fans.”

The controversy has also led to wider questions about CAF’s governance.

On 18 March, the Senegalese government called for an international investigation “into suspected corruption within the governing bodies” of CAF.

CAF responded by defending the “independence” of its disciplinary bodies.

The organisation also dismissed Djiboutian lawyer Yassin Osman Robleh 15 days before the appeals decision. Robleh had spent six years overseeing the integrity of CAF’s procedures, although the confederation did not give a reason for his dismissal.

CAS must now consider the competing arguments before deciding whether Senegal’s appeal can overturn the decision that changed the outcome of the AFCON 2025 final.