'Unacceptable' - Senegal issues furious statement to CAF as AFCON 2025 title fight heads to CAS

The Senegalese Football Federation has broken its silence and they are not going quietly. Hours after the CAF Appeal Board announced it was stripping Senegal of the AFCON 2025 title and awarding it to Morocco. 

The FSF published an official two-part communiqué from Dakar calling the ruling "iniquitous, unprecedented and unacceptable" and vowing an immediate appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The statement, signed by the FSF Secretary General and dated March 17, 2026, confirms that the federation received formal notification of the CAF Appeal Board's decision earlier that day under case reference DC23316 and immediately rejected it in the strongest possible terms.

Source: Official FSF Communique, Dakar

The CAF Appeal Board overturned the original Disciplinary Committee ruling, which had cleared Senegal, specifically because Morocco's right to be heard was not properly respected in the first-instance proceedings. 

In other words, Morocco's appeal succeeded partly on a procedural technicality before the substance of the case was even fully argued. The FSF is expected to make this a central argument in their CAS appeal.

This is a detail buried in the official communique that fundamentally changes how this ruling should be understood. The Disciplinary Committee had initially sided with Senegal.

Morocco appealed and the Appeal Board found that Morocco had not been given a proper hearing the first time around. That procedural failure opened the door for the full case to be reheard, and ultimately for the title to be stripped.

It is a nuance that Senegal's legal team will almost certainly exploit at CAS. If the original disciplinary process was itself flawed, every subsequent ruling that flows from it becomes legally questionable.

• Moussa Niakhate - Senegal Defender (Nottingham Forest)

• El Hadj Malick Diouf - Senegal Defender (West Ham United)

No figure in this story carries more weight than Sadio Mane. During the final's 15-minute walk-off in January,  the very incident CAF used to strip the title, it was Mane who refused to leave the pitch and pleaded with his teammates to return and play on.

Mane's intervention was the reason the match continued and the reason Senegal scored the winning goal. He is now among the players stripped of their AFCON winner's status, punished, in effect, for being the one man on the night who tried to do the right thing.

• Road to CAS - What to Expect

FSF appeal to CAS to be filed "as soon as possible" from Dakar. CAS verdicts typically take 6–12 months, meaning this will be unresolved long before the 2026 World Cup.

Morocco's status - they will be officially recognised as AFCON 2025 champions and travel to the World Cup in the United States carrying that title, pending any CAS ruling.

Senegal at the World Cup - they face France and Norway at MetLife Stadium, New York. Every match will carry extra emotional charge after this ruling.

The medals - Senegalese players still physically hold their winner's medals. The FSF has given no indication they intend to return them, and Niakhate's Instagram post suggests they won't go without a fight.

African football's credibility - the FSF's statement that the ruling "throws discredit on African football" will resonate far beyond Dakar. Expect intense pressure on CAF from across the continent in the days ahead.

Senegal won on the pitch, they scored the goal, lifted the trophy, and their players still hold the medals. But now their federation has gone to war with CAF in language that leaves no room for compromise. This fight is just beginning and CAS is where it will be decided.