RABAT, Morocco — Morocco was awarded the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title Tuesday after the Confederation of African Football appeal board overturned Senegal’s extra-time victory in the Jan. 18 final. The board said Senegal’s stoppage-time walk-off breached tournament rules, changed the result to 3-0 in Morocco’s favor and set up a likely appeal by Senegal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, March 17, 2026.
Senegal stripped of AFCON title: what CAF said
In its CAF Appeal Board media statement, CAF said Senegal infringed Article 82 and, in applying Article 84, forfeited the final, with Morocco recorded as the winner by default. The decision formally set aside the earlier Jan. 28 disciplinary-board ruling, which had rejected Morocco’s protest while still issuing fines and suspensions over the disorder surrounding the match.
A Reuters report on Tuesday’s decision said Senegal’s federation intends to challenge the ruling in Lausanne. The Associated Press account of the reversal said the change denied Senegal what would have been its second continental title and handed Morocco its first AFCON crown since 1976.
How the dispute grew from the final
When the whistle first went in Rabat, Reuters’ Jan. 18 match report described a chaotic finish in which Senegal left the field for 14 minutes after Morocco was awarded a late penalty, returned after the delay, survived Brahim Diaz’s miss and then won 1-0 in extra time through Pape Gueye.
At the time, the result looked like Senegal’s second continental title, building on AP’s report on the country’s first AFCON crown in 2022, when Sadio Mané converted the winning penalty against Egypt.
For Morocco, the ruling closed a loop that had framed the tournament from the start. In a Reuters preview before the final, the hosts were described as chasing a first AFCON title since 1976 and only a second appearance in the championship match since 2004.
What happens next
Unless CAS intervenes, Morocco will now be listed as the official 2025 AFCON champion by a 3-0 forfeit. Senegal’s challenge is likely to test whether a walk-off that ended before full time should still void a result after play resumed, while CAF will rely on the appeal board’s finding that the infringement itself was enough to trigger forfeiture.
The ruling gives Morocco an official home-soil title nearly half a century after its only previous African crown and leaves Senegal in a legal fight over a trophy it had already celebrated. The next decisive move is expected to come in Lausanne, where Senegal says it will challenge the decision.
