African football’s governing body, CAF, have slammed controversial sanctions on Morocco following the infamous 2025 AFCON final fallout earlier this month, MySportDab reports.
A rare moment of absurdity in the final of the Africa’s prestigious national team competition in Rabat, Morocco, saw the game paused for almost 17 minutes following referee Jean-Jacques Ndala’s controversial decision to award a penalty to the host nation Morocco.
Ndala’s call came after Brahim Diaz remonstrated angrily for being brought down in the box during Morocco’s corner kick. After VAR reviewed the incident, the Real Madrid forward’s call was heed and Morocco awarded a penalty.
This led to protest by the Senegal’s technical crew with their head coach Pape Bouna Thiaw calling off the players to leave the field and boycott the match.
This led to an uncomfortable hiatus which lasted for 17 minutes before the Teranga Lions’ team captain Sadio Mane called back the players into the field to continue the match.
Brahim Diaz missed the spot-kick, sending the game into extra time where Senegal won 1–0 , courtesy of Pape Gueye’s thunderbolt strike.
However, the victory was overshadowed by the fallout that followed the referees penalty call with CAF now weighing into the incident with sanctions.
From their official statement, the African football governing house have confirmed a total fine of $1.3million on the Senegal for their purported misconduct.
Out of this, the Teranga Lions’ fans are hit with $300k for hostile behavior. The team’s technical crew are also fined with the same amount for abetting the misconduct, and $615k goes for their five yellow cards.
Specifically, Pape Thiaw has been suspended for five CAF official matches and slammed with a $100k fine, while Ndiaye and Sarr will miss two matches for their protagonist role in the fallout.
Notably, Morocco have also been hit with fine for their recalcitrant ball boys during the tournament with Hakimi and Ismael Saibari suspended for two matches and fined as well.
