The dust has settled on the 2025 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, but the cost of the chaos that marred the showpiece event is only just being tallied. And it is steep.<\/p>\n
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has come down hard on both the newly crowned African champions, Senegal, and the hosts, Morocco, issuing a slate of heavy suspensions and fines totalling more than $1 million (approx. R15.7 million).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sanctions, handed down by the CAF Disciplinary Board on Wednesday, paint a grim picture of a final that descended into a diplomatic and sporting brawl, overshadowing what was meant to be a celebration of African football.<\/p>\n
While Senegal took the trophy home with a gritty 1-0 extra-time victory a fortnight ago in Rabat, their behaviour on the night has come at a premium. The F\u00e9d\u00e9ration S\u00e9n\u00e9galaise de Football (FSF) has been ordered to pay fines totalling $615,000 (R9.6m) for a number of offences ranging from the \u201cimproper conduct\u201d of supporters to the \u201cunsporting behaviour\u201d of the technical team.<\/p>\n
The heaviest individual sanction fell on Senegal head coach Pape Bouna Thiaw. CAF found Thiaw guilty of conduct that \u201cbrought the game into disrepute,\u201d slapping him with a five-match ban and a staggering $100,000 (R1.57m) fine.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t stop at the bench. On-field stars Iliman Ndiaye and Ismaila Sarr have both been suspended for two official CAF matches for aggressive behaviour toward the referee, Jean-Jacques Ndala, a flashpoint that occurred during the match\u2019s most controversial moment when a VAR-awarded penalty nearly saw the Senegalese squad walk off the pitch in protest.<\/p>\n
Morocco, aiming to showcase their readiness for future global tournaments, found themselves in the dock for failures in match organisation and discipline. The F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Royale Marocaine de Football (FRMF) was fined a total of $315,000 (approx. R5.1m), a figure that includes a specific, humiliating $200,000 penalty for the \u201cinappropriate behaviour of ball boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further compounding the hosts\u2019 embarrassment, CAF sanctioned the FRMF for allowing players and technical staff to enter the VAR review area and obstruct the match officials, a direct violation of the integrity of the game.<\/p>\n
On the pitch, the Atlas Lions lost more than just the match. Star defender Achraf Hakimi received a two-match ban (one year suspended) for unsporting behaviour. Midfielder Isma\u00ebl Saibari fared worse, hit with a three-match suspension and a personal fine of $100,000.<\/p>\n
To add salt to the wound, the Disciplinary Board summarily rejected a protest lodged by Morocco regarding alleged violations by Senegal, effectively closing the book on the legal tussle.<\/p>\n
The severity of the sanctions reflects the ugliness of the scenes in Rabat on Sunday, 18 January. Following the disputed penalty decision, tensions spilt from the pitch to the stands. Senegalese fans clashed with Moroccan security while attempting to invade the pitch, leading to 18 arrests.<\/p>\n
The fallout forced a rapid diplomatic intervention. In a region where football and politics are often inextricably linked, the leaders of both nations moved quickly to ensure the \u201cregrettable incidents\u201d didn\u2019t sever centuries-old ties.<\/p>\n
Senegal\u2019s Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, speaking from Rabat just a week after the final, described the events as \u201cdeplorable\u201d and \u201cpainful\u201d but urged the public not to overdramatise them. \u201cThe incidents should be understood as emotional excesses fuelled by passion, rather than as political or cultural rifts,\u201d Sonko said during a joint commission meeting.<\/p>\n
It was a delicate balancing act. While Senegal\u2019s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye congratulated his team and thanked Morocco for hosting, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch notably stopped short of congratulating Senegal on the title, though he emphasised the strong fraternity between the two nations. Senegal remains a key ally for Morocco, particularly regarding sovereignty disputes over Western Sahara.<\/p>\n
King Mohammed VI, trying to salvage the narrative of a successful tournament, insisted the chaos would not undermine \u201cAfrican fraternity.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, with legal action still being pursued by the Moroccan federation and FIFA President Gianni Infantino publicly condemning the behaviour of the Senegalese camp, the 2025 AFCON final will likely be remembered less for the football played and more for the heavy price paid in its aftermath.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The dust has settled on the 2025 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, but the cost of the chaos that marred the showpiece event is only just being tallied. And it is steep. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has come down hard on both the newly crowned African champions, Senegal, and the hosts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_25071586472533619_109551237394069":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23402,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22331\/revisions\/23402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}