Today (Thursday), the Moroccan and Senegalese football teams are awaiting the resolution of the dispute over the title of the African Cup of Nations, which was held last January, when the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) considers the appeal submitted by Senegal to recover the cup that its players snatched on the field, before the Confederation of African Football decided to strip them of it and consider Morocco the winner of the final match with a score of 3-0.
The court, at its headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne, will hold a one-day hearing before a panel of three judges, behind closed doors, to reconsider one of the most controversial matches in the history of the tournament, about 9 months after the final, which witnessed chaotic events in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, and ended with Senegal winning 1-0 after extra time, before the result was canceled by a decision of the Appeals Committee of the Confederation of African Football last March.
The court did not set a date for issuing its ruling, which would decide the identity of the champion of the last edition of the African Cup of Nations, while the next edition will start next June, jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The powers of Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala may constitute a decisive factor in the Senegalese appeal, especially since the match was completed by his decision despite being stopped for 15 minutes, after the Senegalese players left the field in protest against the awarding of a penalty kick in favor of Morocco in stoppage time.
Football laws give the referee clear powers regarding his decisions on the field, as Article 5.2 of the Law of the Game stipulates that “the referee’s decisions regarding the facts of play, including whether or not goals are awarded and the result of the match, are final.”
Referee Ndala had decided to resume play after the Senegalese players returned to the field following their protest against the penalty kick, at a time when the stands witnessed violent clashes between Senegalese fans and the Moroccan police, amid a state of tension that accompanied the final minutes of the confrontation.
Senegalese star Sadio Mane played a prominent role in convincing his teammates to return and complete the match, before the referee made the decision to cancel it, a decision that would have given Morocco the title without the need to continue the match.
The match resumed with the penalty kick that could have given the Moroccan national team its first title in the African Cup of Nations since 1976, after Brahim Diaz, the Spanish Real Madrid striker, stepped forward to take it at a decisive moment in the final.
Diaz chose to execute the kick using the “Panenka” method, which relies on deceiving the goalkeeper by slowly raising the ball toward the middle of the net. However, Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy remained standing in his place and was easily able to catch the ball, so Morocco lost the opportunity to win the title in regular time.
Video footage from the main box of the stadium showed Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid sitting next to Gianni Infantino, President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), and he appeared astonished by the miss of the penalty kick.
The match extended to extra time, and after only 4 minutes, Senegalese midfielder Pape Gueye succeeded in scoring the lead goal, after he fired a powerful high shot that landed in the Moroccan net, making it the only goal in the confrontation that ended with Senegal winning 1-0.
The repercussions of the final did not stop at the final whistle, as the Disciplinary Committee of the Confederation of African Football, 11 days after the match, imposed financial fines totaling more than one million dollars on the Senegalese and Moroccan federations, in addition to penalties affecting a number of players and Senegalese coach Pape Thiaw.
The Disciplinary Committee initially rejected Morocco's request to cancel the result of the match and consider it a winner of the title, due to the Senegal players leaving the field in protest against the penalty kick.
The two parties then filed appeals before the Confederation of African Football, before the case witnessed a major transformation two months after the final match, when the Appeals Committee issued a decision deeming the Senegalese team withdrawn and losing the confrontation, and the result was calculated in favor of Morocco by 3 goals for nothing.
The Appeals Committee relied on the regulations of the African Cup of Nations, which stipulate that if “a team refuses to play or leaves the field before the official end of the match without obtaining permission from the referee, it is considered a loser and is permanently excluded from the current tournament.”
The decision led to the Senegalese team being stripped of the title it had won on the field, and transferring it to Morocco, so the case turned into a legal dispute regarding the application of the tournament regulations and the powers of the referee who allowed the match to continue until its end.
The Senegalese government pledged to help “take all appropriate legal measures” in order to regain the title, and also demanded the opening of an investigation into what it described as “suspicions of corruption” within the African football system.
The case has raised a growing feeling on the Senegalese side that Morocco, which is hosting the 2030 World Cup alongside other countries, has broad influence within the Confederation of African Football and FIFA, in light of the controversy that followed the decision to strip Senegal from the tournament.
The repercussions of the match extended outside the stadium, after it witnessed riots and clashes between Senegalese fans and the Moroccan police, before Moroccan King Mohammed VI, last May, pardoned 18 Senegalese fans who had been imprisoned in connection with those events inside Rabat Stadium.
It is expected that the presidents of the Senegalese and Moroccan Football Associations will be absent from the hearing scheduled for today, as it coincides with a three-day summit of the Confederation of African Football in Cape Verde, with the participation of Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA.
Attention turns to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, where the confrontation between Morocco and Senegal returns to the fore, this time outside the green rectangle, after the match ended with a Senegalese victory with an unanswered goal, before the title was transferred to Morocco by decision of the African Appeals Committee, awaiting the ruling that will put an end to the dispute over the identity of the champion.
