AFCON 2025: Senegal Has Right To Appeal CAF Verdict –Motsepe

The president of the Confederation of African Football, Patrice Motsepe, has disclosed that Senegal have the full right to appeal the CAF verdict that stripped the team of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

Recall that CAF’s Appeal Board on Tuesday ruled that Senegal forfeited the final after players briefly walked off the pitch in protest, handing Morocco a 3-0 walkover victory and their first AFCON title since 1976. This overturned Senegal’s 1-0 extra-time triumph, plunging African football into controversy.

Reacting to the verdict, Senegal announced on Wednesday that it will challenge CAF’s ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), setting the stage for a protracted legal battle.

In a strongly worded statement, they condemned the decision as “unjust, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” asserting that it “brings African football into disrepute.”

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Speaking on the controversial drama, via a video interview published by CAF on Wednesday evening, Motsepe stated that Senegal and every other 54 nations in Africa have the right to pursue their appeals and their advance interests the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He also noted that the ugly incident in the final have damaged the image of African football.

“I’ve been informed of the ruling by the CAF Appeals Board concerning the appeal by Morocco relating to the AFCON-Morocco 2025 final match and I previously expressed my extreme disappointment with the incidences that took place at the final match,” he said.

“The important thing of what happened in that final match is it undermines the good work that CAF has done over many years to ensure that there’s integrity, that there’s respect, that there’s ethics, that there’s governance, as well as credibility of the results of our football matches.

“The occurrences, the incidence at the final match of the AFCON-Morocco exposers is the work that we are still dealing with concerning the suspicion and distrust. It’s a legacy issue.

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“When I became president one of the major concerns was the impartiality, the independence and the respect of referees and match commissioners,” he said. “A lot of good good work has been done but there’s also that continues to be suspicion because it’s a legacy issue.It’s something that has been there for many many years and we consistently deal with that because that’s critically important.

“Another important matter that these incidences at the final match brought to the fore is the independence and the respect of our judicial bodies. We, in choosing the members of our judicial bodies, we followed a different path, different from what had been the case before,” he said. “We invited each member association and we invited every zone, the six regional areas or the six zones in CAF, to give us names of respected judges and respected lawyers.

“It is important that the decisions of our disciplinary board, the CAF disciplinary board and the decisions of the CAF appeals board, is viewed with the respect and integrity that’s very important to us.So if you look at the composition of those bodies they reflect some of the most respected lawyers and judges on the continent.”