CAF Rejects Moroccan Federation's Protest Over Alleged Senegalese Violations of AFCON Regulations

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Thursday morning a series of disciplinary sanctions following the events that occurred during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final between Morocco and Senegal in Rabat, which sparked widespread controversy on both sporting and legal levels.

The most prominent of the official decisions was CAF's rejection of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation's complaint. The Moroccan federation had demanded additional sanctions against the Senegalese Football Federation based on Articles 82 and 84 of the Africa Cup of Nations regulations, which pertain to cases of withdrawal or refusal to play and the methods for applying resulting disciplinary penalties.

Article 82 stipulates that if a team withdraws from the competition for any reason, fails to appear for a match, refuses to play, or leaves the field of play before the end of the match without the referee's permission, it shall be considered to have lost and will be definitively eliminated from the current competition. Article 84 outlines the penalties for violating Article 82, stating that the team will be excluded from the tournament, and the match will be recorded as a 3-0 loss, unless the opposing team had achieved a better result at the time the match was stopped, with the Disciplinary Committee having the possibility to take additional measures depending on the nature of the infringement.