Senegal’s appeal against Morocco’s Afcon title win to be heard by Cas

Senegal’s challenge against the decision to remove them as Africa Cup of Nations champions will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in Lausanne on Thursday.

The dispute follows the Confederation of African Football (Caf) decision to award the title to Morocco, despite Senegal defeating the hosts 1-0 after extra time in January’s final in Rabat.

Senegal’s players left the pitch for 14 minutes late in normal time after a penalty was awarded against them. Several of the team then went to the dressing room in protest before returning to continue the match.

Morocco missed the penalty and the game went into extra time. Senegal subsequently scored the winning goal and appeared to have secured the trophy.

Two months later, however, Caf’s Appeal Board ruled that Senegal had forfeited the match because of their walk-off. The result was overturned and Morocco were awarded a 3-0 victory.

Senegal lodged an appeal with Cas on 25 March, seeking to be reinstated as champions. The hearing will include submissions from Senegal, Morocco and Caf.

“After the hearing, the panel will start its deliberations. At this stage, Cas cannot state when a final decision will be rendered but it will not be on the date of the hearing,” Cas said in a statement.

The panel will be chaired by French civil rights expert Professor Gerald Simon. He will be joined by Italian international law professor Luigi Fumagalli and Ulrich Haas, a Hamburg-based attorney and professor of law at the University of Zurich in Germany.

Dispute over tournament regulations

Senegal are expected to argue that decisions made by the referee during incidents on the field are final under the Laws of the Game and cannot be challenged retrospectively.

A central issue will also be the interpretation of Caf’s tournament regulations, which were used by the Appeals Board in ruling in Morocco’s favour.

The regulations state: “if, for any reason whatsoever, a team refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorisation of the referee, it shall be considered the loser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition”.

Senegal’s legal team is expected to argue that those provisions must be applied strictly. They are likely to maintain that a temporary departure from the pitch did not amount to abandoning the match.

Morocco are expected to support a different interpretation. Their position is that any team leaving the field without the referee’s permission must be declared the loser and permanently eliminated, even if it later returns and the departure was not permanent.

The hearing will be held behind closed doors. Cas has not indicated when its final decision will be announced.