CAF President Patrice Motsepe has broken his silence after 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) winner Senegal was stripped of its title, and second-placed Morocco was crowned as the new champions following the verdict delivered by CAF’s independent appeal committee.
In a video statement, Motsepe addressed the ruling made by the independent CAF Appeal Board, which reversed the initial tournament outcome, which saw Senegal crowned champions after defeating Morocco 1-0 in the final.
Said Motsepe: “I have been informed of the ruling by the CAF Appeals Board concerning the appeal by Morocco relating to the 2025 Afcon final match in Morocco.
“I previously expressed my extreme disappointment with the incidents that took place at the final match. It undermines the good work that CAF has done over the last couple of years in ensuring that there’s integrity, respect, governance, and ethics so that there is credibility in the results of our football matches.
“The occurrences and incidents in the final match expose the work that we are dealing with concerning the suspicion and trust—it’s a legacy issue. When I took over as president, one of the major concerns was the impartiality, respect, and the independence of referees and match commissioners.
“But a lot of work has been done, but there continues to be suspicion because it’s a legacy issue that’s been there for many years, and we are consistently dealing with it,” he added.
“One of the things those incidents at the final brought to the fore was the independence and respect of our judicial bodies. In choosing members of our judiciary, we followed a different path than what has not been the case before.
“We invited each member association, every zone, and regional areas to give us names of respected judges and lawyers because it is important that the decisions of our Disciplinary Committee Board and our Appeals Board be viewed with integrity, and that is important to us.
“If you look at the composition of those bodies, they reflect some of the most important lawyers and judges in the continent. But we will still have to deal with the perceptions and concerns about the integrity and it’s on going issue.
“We are very clear at CAF that we are enormously committed to ensure that not only in terms of what we do, because we implemented best practices, but also we identified the best judges and lawyers from every region, zone from the 54 countries in Africa who have integrity and a track record.
“Partly, the independence is reflected by the decisions taken by the two bodies: the CAF DC Board took one decision, and the CAF Appeals Board took a different decision, and I’m told that Senegal are going to appeal, and I am happy.
“All the 54 CAF members have the right to pursue appeals in CAF but also the highest body CAS and we will adhere to and respect the decision taken at the highest level.”
CAF confirmed that the Senegal National Team is declared to have forfeited the final match of the 2025 Afcon, with the result of the match being recorded as 3–0 in favour of Morocco and its football federation.
Motsepe addressed the outcome, emphasizing respect for the decision of the appeals body and reaffirming that the process remains independent.
There has since been a huge outcry throughout the African continent and around the world after the unprecedented announcement was made on Tuesday night.
In January, Senegal overcame Morocco with a solitary goal during extra time in one of Afcon’s most heated finals in Rabat, Morocco.
The volatile match was marred by ugly scenes and drama. Morocco was awarded a contentious penalty by the referee on the stroke of fulltime. The Senegal team did not accept the decision and staged a brief walk-out.
After some convincing, Senegal skipper Sadio Mane led the team back onto the field, and their goalkeeper saved the spot kick from Brahim Diaz.
Senegal went on to win the match in extra time but the host nation filed a protest, and a decision was taken on Tuesday to hand over the championship to the host nation Morocco.
Motsepe continued: “A critical factor is that not a single country in Africa will be treated in a manner that is more preferential, more advantageous, or more favourable than any other country in the continent.
“We take what happened at the final match in Morocco at AFCON very seriously, and we have already started with important steps to make sure that those areas that have deficiencies and that have need for improvement, the necessary resolutions are passed.
“We have set very high standards, and it’s important for us that ordinary football spectators in all our 54 member countries in Africa, in their judgement, not in CAF judgement, not in my judgement, regard the decisions of our judicial bodies as fair, with impartiality and integrity.
“And what is equally important is that they regard our referees, VAR operators, match commissioners as people who are fair and just, and that’s critically important,” Motsepe explained further.
