Suspense. Drum roll. And white smoke. Lions of the Atlas or Teranga, who will be the African champion? Ten months after the CAN 2025 final, the Court of Arbitration for Sport examines on Thursday the Senegalese appeal against Morocco's victory on the green carpet.
From 9:30 a.m. in Lausanne, on the Swiss shores of Lake Geneva, the supreme court of sport will attempt to unravel an unprecedented dispute, no selection having ever lost a title won on the field in this way. It will be necessary to be patient to know both the arguments exchanged and the outcome, since the hearing will be held behind closed doors, at the request of the parties, without the date of decision being known at this time. The decision will be made within several weeks.
Also read CAN 2025: Morocco-Senegal, the final of shame
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But after a final with a crazy scenario, a debate is already taking shape combining a legal battle around the fundamental principles of sport and arbitration, and questions about the governance of football.
“We have to read the case in a broader context,” Thibault Ulrich, sports law researcher at the University of Lausanne, reminds AFP: beyond the African continent, the lifting without reason of the suspension of the American Folarin Balogun in the middle of the 2026 World Cup has accentuated suspicions of “political decisions” by the disciplinary authorities.
Also read “I told Mané to go get his friends”: the confidences of Claude Le Roy, the man who allowed the CAN final to resume
The trophy is still Senegalese
On January 18 in Rabat, Senegal was crowned African champion by dominating Morocco (1-0) at the end of extra time and chaos: contesting a penalty awarded to the Moroccans in added time, finally missed by Brahim Diaz, a large part of the Senegalese left the field, and only returned a quarter of an hour later.
Seized by the Moroccan federation, the CAF appeal jury pronounced Senegal's defeat by forfeit on March 17, with a score of 3-0, referring to articles 82 and 84 of the CAN regulations which prohibit “leaving the field before the legal end of the match without the authorization of the referee”.
The FSF denounced “the grossest administrative robbery in the history of our sport”, even presenting the trophy to supporters of its diaspora at the end of March at the Stade de France, before turning to the CAS.
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According to Thibault Ulrich, the CAF appeal jury made an “extremely strict reading” of the CAN regulations, which takes no account of the fact that the Congolese official for the final, Jean-Jacques Ndala, let the match resume after the return of the Senegalese.
“Preserve the interest of competitions”
However, the “Law of the Game” No. 5.2 of the International Board, which is binding on all players in football, provides that “the decisions of the referee on facts relating to the game are final, including the validation of a goal and the result of the match”. Echoing even more directly the scenario of the final, “the referee cannot change a restart of the game” even if he realizes “that it is incorrect”, adds the IFAB.
This rule is reinforced by the “playing field doctrine”, long established by CAS jurisprudence: unless it can be proven that the referee is corrupt or in bad faith, his sporting decisions cannot be called into question.
“The objective is to preserve the interest of the competitions,” explains Thibault Ulrich. Their result must be decided on the pitch and in the moment, not by judges after the fact, otherwise we will lose all the supporters.
At the same time, the Senegalese government called on March 18 for the opening of an international investigation “for suspicions of corruption within the governing bodies” of the CAF. In response, the pan-African institution praised the “independence” of its disciplinary bodies.
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Without ever explaining the reason, the confederation nevertheless dismissed, fifteen days before the appeal decision, the Djiboutian lawyer Yassin Osman Robleh, responsible for six years of guaranteeing the integrity of its procedures.
