Senegal coach Pape Bouna Thiaw said there was no doubt his side were African champions despite being stripped of the \u200ctitle this month and that tournaments should be won on the pitch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a first comment since the Confederation of African Football\u2019s Appeal Board awarded Morocco the Africa Cup of Nations title after Senegal staged a 14-minute walk off during January\u2019s final in Rabat, Thiaw told reporters: \u201cWe know we’re African champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Senegal are in Paris to play a World Cup warm-up friendly \u2060against Peru at the Stade de France and in Friday\u2019s pre-match press conference, Thiaw said he wanted his side to keep focus on football and avoid the controversy surrounding the decision by African football\u2019s governing body.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Senegal this week lodged an appeal with the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is not to get distracted,\u201d added Thiaw, who was at the heart of the controversial walk off and heavily punished for his actions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He will be allowed to take Senegal to the World Cup in June and Saturday\u2019s warm-up game is followed by another friendly against neighbours Gambia \u200cin \u2060Dakar on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we’re African champions. We’re going to keep working to win more trophies. It’s clear in our minds that competitions and trophies are won on the pitch. We’ve done that; we’re African champions,\u201d Thiaw told reporters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Senegal’s most capped international Idrissa Gueye also stressed Senegal\u2019s success on the field.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“As players, nothing \u2060can replace the intense emotions we experienced,” he said. “In the last four Cup of Nations tournaments, Senegal has reached three finals and won two African championship titles. We didn’t steal this result. It’s the work of an \u2060entire country that gives its all. We deserve to be African champions on the field.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The coach and Gueye sat in front of a backdrop displaying the words “Champions of Africa”. There is \u2060an expectation Senegal might show off the Cup of Nations trophy to their supporters at the Stade de France ahead of the game, potentially heightening tensions with Morocco over their protest and the Appeal Board’s decision.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30184,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-30183","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Senegal coach Pape Bouna Thiaw said there was no doubt his side were African champions","published_date":"2026-03-27 19:51:17","news_description":"Senegal coach Pape Bouna Thiaw said there was no doubt his side were African champions","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30183","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30185,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30183\/revisions\/30185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}