'Why must it be a Nigerian?' - Fans call out Justice Harriman, who led CAF Appeal Board that took Senegal's AFCON 2025 title

African football is in chaos after Senegal's AFCON 2025 title has been ripped away two months after they won it.

Morocco have been handed a trophy they didn't win on the pitch and right in the middle of it all, sitting in the president's chair of the board that made it happen, is a Nigerian.

Her name is Justice Roli Daibo Harriman. She is listed as President of the CAF Appeal Board on CAF's own official website and the moment Nigerian football fans made that connection on Tuesday night, the reaction was as fast as it was furious, directed not at Senegal, but at their own.

• Justice Roli Daibo Harriman

• Nationality: Nigerian

• CAF Role: President CAF Appeal Board

• Background: Nigerian jurist appointed to head CAF's judicial Appeal Board, the body with final say on all disciplinary appeals within African football.

In October 2024, Justice Harriman stepped aside from Libya's appeal of their airport sanction involving Nigeria because a Nigerian heading the appeal in a Nigeria case was a clear conflict of interest. She did not step aside this time.

• The Pinnick link: Social media posts allege she came to her CAF role through former NFF president Amaju Pinnick's network. This has not been independently confirmed by Pulse Sports Nigeria.

Pinnick served as NFF president from 2014 to 2022, building one of the most extensive networks in African football administration. He served on the CAF Executive Committee from 2017, was CAF First Vice President from 2018–2019, and was elected to the FIFA Council in March 2021 - at a CAF General Assembly held in Rabat, Morocco.

"Why must it be a Nigerian that heads the @CAF_Online Appeals Board that now brings #Africa's football to ridicule and disrepute? And by the way, it was through @PinnickAmaju that she came to CAF."

"Nigerian referees can't officiate at AFCON but we can chair the board of appeal for a hatchet job."

"Were their lives threatened or were they sorted? They sat and came up with the most stupid decision ever made concerning football, quoting a particular rule. Even if Morocco had won on the field of play, it would have been injustice to Senegal still. CAF just shot itself in the foot."

The referee comparison stings the most. Nigerian match officials are hardly selected for CAF competitons and were missing in the tournament in Morocco. The argument being made on social media is simple: If that rule exists for referees, why not for the president of the Appeal Board? Why is the standard different for administrators?

Nigeria did not make this ruling. Justice Harriman is an independent judicial officer, not a representative of the Super Eagles or the NFF.

But in the court of African football opinion, the optics are damaging and Nigerian fans know it, which is why they are the ones leading the charge against the decision.

There is something significant about that. Nigeria and Senegal are competitors, they fight for the same continental prizes. Nigerian fans do not typically lose sleep over Senegalese grievances.

The fact that Nigerians are so loudly siding with Senegal at this moment is a measure of just how badly the CAF ruling has landed across the continent.

Justice Harriman presided, the board ruled, Senegal lost their title. But Nigeria, her own country, is among the most outraged voices in African football right now.