About ten months after the crazy final, the end of the story of the African Cup of Nations is finally in sight, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), on Thursday in Lausanne, will consider Senegal’s appeal against the victory that was awarded to Morocco by administrative decision.
Thibaut Ulrich, a researcher in sports law at the University of Lausanne, told Agence France-Presse that it is an “exceptional case,” as a team has never before been “stripped of a title that was achieved on the field and approved by the referee.”
Frenchman Gerald Simon, Italian Luigi Fumagalli and German Ulrich Haas will listen, starting at nine-thirty, on the banks of the Swiss Lake Leman, in a closed session, to representatives of the Senegalese and Moroccan federations and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The court warned that no decision would be issued on Thursday, but that “the arbitration panel will begin its deliberations” immediately after the session ends, which heralds a quick end, after months of controversy.
Senegal was crowned African champion on January 18 in Rabat, beating Morocco 1-0 after extra time, amid an atmosphere of chaos.
A large number of Senegalese players left the field in protest against a penalty kick awarded to the Moroccans in stoppage time and missed by Ibrahim Dias, and they did not return until a quarter of an hour later to score the winning goal in extra time.
The Appeals Committee of the African Union, after the Moroccan Federation resorted to it, on March 17, announced the defeat of Senegal with a score of 3-0, as a result of the withdrawal of its players from the field, based on Articles 82 and 84 of the African Cup of Nations regulations, which prohibit “leaving the field before the legal end of the match without the referee’s permission.”
The Senegalese Federation denounced “the most heinous administrative robbery in the history of our sport,” and kept the cup, but also displayed it to supporters of the Senegalese community in late March at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris.
By resorting to CAS, Senegal seeks to regain its title as African champion, and to open a broader discussion that affects the basic principles of sport and the authority of referees.
Thibaut Ulrich believes that the CAF Appeals Committee adopted a “very strict reading” of the tournament regulations, which does not take into account that the Congolese final referee, Jean-Jacques Ndala, allowed the match to resume after the return of the Senegalese.
Law of the Game No. 5.2 issued by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which applies to all players in football, states that “the referee’s decisions on incidents relating to play are final, including the award of a goal and the result of a match.”
In a more relevant echo of the final scenario, the Council adds that “the referee cannot change the resumption of play” even if he realizes “that it is incorrect.”
According to Ulrich, this rule reinforces the “pitch doctrine” that has long been enshrined in the jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as the decisions of a sports referee cannot be appealed unless it is proven that he is corrupt or in bad faith.
He explains: “The goal is to preserve the interest of the competitions. Its result must be decided on the field at the same moment, not through judges later, otherwise we will lose all the fans.” In parallel with this legal debate, on March 18, the Senegalese government called for the opening of an international investigation “into suspicions of corruption within the leadership bodies” of the African Union. In response, the Continental Union praised the “independence” of its disciplinary bodies. However, fifteen days before the appeal decision, the Federation dismissed, without explaining the reasons, the Djiboutian legal expert Yassine Ousmane Roubla, who had been charged for six years with ensuring the integrity of the Federation’s procedures.
