{"id":29085,"date":"2026-03-18T11:47:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=29085"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:47:37","slug":"senegal-to-protest-being-stripped-of-cup-of-nations-title","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/senegal-to-protest-being-stripped-of-cup-of-nations-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal to protest being stripped of Cup of Nations title"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Senegal have condemned the decision to strip them of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAF) title, labelling it \u201cunfair, unprecedented, and unacceptable\u201d, and saying it casts a shadow over African football.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Morocco \u200bwere declared African champion on Tuesday after the Confederation of African Football\u2019s Appeal Board \u200cupheld their protest and found Senegal\u2019s walk-off during the final on January 18 were grounds for them to be disqualified and the match result declared 3-0 in favour of the hosts.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Senegal won the final in Rabat with an extra-time goal, \u200bbut not before staging a 14-minute walk-off after a penalty was awarded against them in \u200bstoppage time at the end of the regulation 90 minutes.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The protest was instigated by coach \u2060Papa Bouna Thiaw, subsequently handed a lengthy ban, and saw Senegal\u2019s veteran striker Sadio Mane emerge \u200bas a hero as he attempted to get his teammates back onto the field.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Once Senegal returned to \u200bthe pitch, the referee allowed play to continue with Morocco squandering the last-gasp penalty and the encounter then going to extra time, with midfielder Pape Gueye netting the 94th-minute winner.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">However, CAF\u2019s Appeal Board said that by walking off, Senegal contravened \u200btournament regulations and forfeited the game.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cThe Senegalese Football Federation denounces this unfair, unprecedented, and unacceptable decision, \u200bwhich casts a shadow over African football,\u201d it said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cTo defend its rights and the interests of \u200cSenegalese football, \u2060the federation will initiate an appeal as soon as possible before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Swiss-based Central Application Service had to intervene in 2019 when Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca walked off in the second leg of the African Champions League final, also protesting against Video Assistant Referee.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21384,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-29085","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Senegal condemn the decision to strip them of the CAF","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29087,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29085\/revisions\/29087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}