Ruling overturns Senegal’s title at Africa Cup of Nations and declares Morocco the champion

Source: THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

Mo­roc­co was stun­ning­ly award­ed the Africa Cup of Na­tions ti­tle on Tues­day by ap­peals judges who over­turned Sene­gal’s vic­to­ry in a chaot­ic fi­nal in Jan­u­ary.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion of African Foot­ball said its ap­peals board ruled that Sene­gal is “de­clared to have for­feit­ed the fi­nal” and its 1-0 win in ex­tra time be­comes a 3-0 de­fault win for host na­tion Mo­roc­co.

In the Jan. 18 fi­nal in Ra­bat, Sene­gal play­ers led by coach Pape Thi­aw left the field in protest dur­ing stop­page time for 15 min­utes — and fans tried to storm the field — when Mo­roc­co was award­ed a penal­ty that was set to de­cide the match.

When play re­sumed, Mo­roc­co for­ward Brahim Di­az’s spot kick — a con­tro­ver­sial slow chip shot known as a “Pa­nen­ka” — was saved by goal­keep­er Édouard Mendy and Sene­gal scored the on­ly goal in ex­tra time.

Ten­sion in the sta­di­um was al­ready raised by Sene­gal be­ing de­nied a goal min­utes be­fore the penal­ty was giv­en to Mo­roc­co.

In the sec­ond minute of stop­page time, Sene­gal’s ap­par­ent go-ahead goal was ruled out for a foul by Ab­doulaye Seck, but TV re­plays showed lit­tle con­tact on Mo­roc­co de­fend­er Achraf Haki­mi.

At an ini­tial dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing, CAF im­posed fines of than $1 mil­lion in fines and bans for Sene­gal and Mo­roc­co play­ers and of­fi­cials but left the re­sult un­touched.

The case could go to a fur­ther ap­peal at the Court of Ar­bi­tra­tion for Sport.

CAF cit­ed ar­ti­cle 82 of tour­na­ment reg­u­la­tions for its mar­quee event to jus­ti­fy the ver­dict en­forced on ap­peal, though not at the first hear­ing.

It states “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 con­sid­ered los­er and shall be elim­i­nat­ed for good from the cur­rent com­pe­ti­tion.” —CAIRO (AP)