00:00Emily Ball is a huge sports follower. She's with me here on set to explain more. Good to have you
00:04with us, Emily.
00:05I mean, just explain, first of all, what happened in this game. Remind us of what was so controversial, really,
00:11about that chaotic final.
00:13Well, it was an absolutely mad game. I've never seen anything like it in my whole time, being a huge
00:18football fan.
00:19So as a reminder, the score was nil-nil, approaching the end of the second half.
00:23And then in the last few minutes, Brahim Diaz, who's, of course, the Moroccan forward, was fouled in the box
00:29and a penalty was awarded.
00:31Now, if you ask me, there was a bit of a flopping action going on there, but that's a whole
00:34debate for another time. I won't even start that debate.
00:37Anyway, so the penalty was awarded and the Senegalese players decide they're going to stage a protest, encouraged in part
00:43by their coach, Pap Tiao.
00:44They walk off the pitch and the play is stopped for around 10, 15 minutes, something like that.
00:49Now, Senegal's superstar Sadio Mane manages to convince his team to come back onto the pitch, play the rest of
00:56the game and see how this penalty ends up.
00:59Now, during this time, Senegalese fans are crashing the pitch, throwing chairs, having fights with some of the security personnel.
01:06And never mind, the penalty still takes place whilst Senegalese fans are still on that pitch.
01:13Scenes of absolute madness.
01:14It gets even crazier because Braim Diaz, who's this superstar, decides to take the worst penalty in the history of
01:21penalties, in my opinion.
01:22He takes a Penenka, which is basically this tiny little lob into the centre of the goal.
01:27Now, this doesn't fool the goalkeeper.
01:29He's a goalkeeper famed for saving Penenka's.
01:31Like, literally the last person you should try Penenka against is this goalkeeper.
01:34He stops that attempt and it goes into extra time.
01:39Senegal then score and they win the game 1-0.
01:42They become champions of the AFCON.
01:45It's all fine.
01:46Except it's not all fine because Morocco is, of course, quite upset.
01:51They haven't won their final that they were kind of the favourites for in front of their home crowds.
01:55It would have been their first win since 1976.
01:59Upsets all round.
02:00Exactly.
02:00And Senegal now then stripped of the title.
02:02How's that been justified?
02:04Well, it's, of course, as you can imagine, hugely controversial.
02:07Announced yesterday in a press release.
02:09So the CAF Appeals Committee, so the African Football Confederation, also known as CAF,
02:14their appeals committee has justified their decision, as you mentioned earlier, by applying two articles from their regulations, 82 and
02:2084.
02:21The article 82 states that if a team refuses to play or leave the ground before the regular end of
02:27the match,
02:28it will be considered a forfeit and the losing team shall be eliminated for good from the current competition.
02:3584 rules that if a team forfeits that game, it loses that game 3-0.
02:39That's the score that's now been imposed.
02:41The problem is that game was played even after the Senegalese team walked off.
02:47And it was played through, to its completion, a 1-0 win for Senegal.
02:52So this is the question now, is what do we do with the difference between the referee decision on the
02:57pitch and this now new decision?
02:59And CAF's decision yesterday goes back on their previous decision as well.
03:02Exactly.
03:03There was a previous decision before this decision.
03:04It's just a series of chaotic decisions.
03:06So this is basically a U-turn on their previous decision.
03:09So it's not the first disciplinary decision.
03:12In late January, CAF, their disciplinary board, had imposed more than $1 million in fines to both teams.
03:20There were fines to players, bans for coaches.
03:24For instance, Pap Tiao, who encourages players to leave the pitch, was banned for three games.
03:28I think it was, among others, of course, a number of fines being attributed because of Senegal's fans as well.
03:34Morocco then, of course, appealed that decision, as you would if you were Morocco.
03:40And CAF, basically with yesterday's decision, a lot of decisions, has now overturned that initial decision by the disciplinary board,
03:49citing, as I said, articles 82 and 84, effectively stripping Senegal of their title, giving it to Morocco and naming
03:56them champions of Africa.
03:58I'm sitting here giggling.
03:59Perhaps I shouldn't be.
03:59I mean, it's incredibly serious, this, isn't it?
04:01I mean, what on earth happens next?
04:02No, it's incredibly serious, but it's also unprecedented.
04:05Like, we've never seen anything like this.
04:07And for a decision to come two months, almost comically, to the day, it was played on the 18th of
04:12January with the 18th today, is just something that's never been seen before.
04:16So now what happens is we've heard that Senegal, the Senegalese FA, is preparing their appeal.
04:21So it's a battle of appeals to the CAS, the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne in Switzerland.
04:28Now, the CAS is recognised in FIFA's statutes, specifically in Article 56 of FIFA statutes, as the body that will
04:37resolve disputes between FIFA members.
04:40And now, according to Article 58 of the FIFA regulations, a lot of articles, a lot of decisions, the Senegalese
04:45FA now has 21 days to build their appeal and submit their appeal to the CAS in Lausanne.
04:51Now, that would usually take about a year to reach a verdict.
04:56And also, interesting to note that CAF has a history of losing their appeals at the Court of Arbitration of
05:04Sport.
05:04So they could potentially be another overhaul of this decision and the title could be applied back to Senegal again
05:12if they win this decision.
05:15It will take longer than it will take to get to the 2026 World Cup.
05:20So they'll be playing the World Cup not knowing if they're African champions.
05:22And there are also a number of other issues. What does this mean logistically?
05:27Are people now going to go around Senegal trying to grab medals back and trophies back?
05:32Senegalese players have already said, come get them, you know, provoking.
05:35So we'll just have to see how this all ends up going.
05:37Maybe they'll know who's won by the next CAF. Who knows?
05:41Fingers crossed.
05:41Fingers crossed. Emily takes up that Emily Boyle on France 24.
05:44Fingers crossed.
Comments