The Africa Cup of Nations announced on March 17, during the Champions League Round of 16 second leg, that Morocco was declared champion of AFCON after the tournament ended two months ago.
The tournament was hosted in Morocco. After a fantastic run in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, it was the dark horse of the tournament and captured the hearts of many soccer fans. Eyes were on this team, hoping to give them some recognition.
This changed during Morocco’s run to the final, as it was reported by fans that players of opposing teams and news outlets that the Morocco fans were making it difficult for any team that plays them.
This is not just the team; it was the officials who were working during the match.
Towels were stolen from teams who needed to dry the ball, unfair calls led to penalties and staff interfered with any support from the opposing staff.
This went on for the remainder of the tournament until the final.
The major talking point of the tournament was during the final minutes of the match, when the referee called an unfair penalty, leaving the team and staff arguing with officials.
The manager told the team to leave the pitch as this game has been unfair since the start of the match.
Approximately 17 minutes later, Senegal returned to the pitch and decided to continue with the penalty.
The shot was blocked and became the main turning point of the match, as the Senegalese team went for a counterattack and scored the winning goal that secured them the AFCON title.
Upon review of the AFCON match after Senegal decided to walk off and return approximately 17 minutes later, the team managed to break multiple rules on the official regulations of the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Senegal National Team had broken Article 82, 83 and 84.
According to Article 82, “If, for any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorization of the referee, it shall be… eliminated for good from the current competition.”
Article 83 states, “A team that shall not be present on the ground, dressed to play at the time fixed for kick-off or at most 15 minutes later, shall forfeit the match.”
In Article 84, “The team which contravenes the provisions of articles 82 and 83 shall be eliminated for good from the competition.
This team will lose its match by 3-0 unless the opponent has scored a more advantageous result at the time when the match was interrupted, in this case this score will be maintained.”
In the end, Morocco was declared the AFCON champions, changing the final score to 3-0 on all official sites.
Noticing this action, many questioned why the match continued if Senegal breached these rules and why the title was stripped two months after the tournament ended.
