By Maryam Ogunremi
For days I have been thinking about CAF’s Appeal Board’s decision to strip Senegal of its championship at the AFCON 2025, which was held in Morocco. I know this is coming days after, but I just can’t get over it.
A lot has been said by experts and those of us who are just lovers of the round leather game. While some are in support of it, some are neutral and others have lambasted the ruling by the board which is said to be headed by a Nigerian. I don’t blame her for the Board’s ruling like some did, but I am not comfortable with the decision and I have my reasons.
Now, taking it one step at a time. While we were young, there was a popular saying, “ara ija l’eyin wa” – the literal meaning is that when you find yourself in a fight, the use of your teeth is a weapon. How does this relate to what happened to Senegal? We are almost there.
On March 17, the CAF Appeal Board stated that Senegal is to forfeit its championship because the players violated the AFCON regulations on articles 82 and 84. Article 82 stated that if a team leaves the ground before the final whistle without referee authorisation, or refuses to play, it is deemed to have lost the match. According to reports, Senegal players, except Sadio Mane, left for 17minutes. That means they ran afoul of this regulation. Strike one against them already.
Article 84, on the other hand, is the enforcer. This one is like the executive arm of government. When the legislature makes the rule, the executive is left with the implementation. This article states that a team violating Article 82 is eliminated from the competition and loses 3-0, unless the opponent had a higher score at the time. This is the part where you say, “It’s all over!”
But then, when Senegal players got back to the field of play, the match officials did not say or do anything to enforce these two articles. Why not? Is it safe to say they don’t know that such articles exist or they felt Senegal has every right to protest? That should be probed further from CAF’s side of this divide. Well, they got back, the ‘illegal penalty’ was played and lost by the Moroccans and Senegal scored one and won the trophy. Awesome, right? That was exactly what most of us felt when they won the trophy, because we wanted them to win.
58 days later, the CAF Appeal Board said that was not meant to be. So, they ruled in favour of the Moroccans. At the Appeal, it is very important for us to know that Senegal presented its case through the Senegal Football Federation (FSF). They noted that they had serious concerns” about player security, because the team bus was swarmed upon arrival, and they faced issues with the hotel the day before the match, their training spot was changed at the last minute, with the new one very close to where the Moroccans were training and ticket allocation issues, which resulted in high pre-match tension. From my point of view, those are very strong points.
Where then does “ara ija l’eyin wa” come in? As much as the articles are valid, the safety of Senegal players is valid too. We saw how the second goalkeeper, who should be busy warming up in case of any unforeseen circumstances to take over from Mendy, was busy fighting off ball boys over Mendy’s towel. I mean, that was wild. If I leave the field for that, I don’t think CAF should fault me for that since they were too busy cooking what shouldn’t have been cooked for Morocco. Why did they even make such regulations without an opening for cases like that? Are they saying those guys should have kept playing till they were physically harmed on that pitch? Leaving that pitch was Senegal’s teeth in that fight and they chose to bite for survival, I don’t see why that is a problem.
Going to appeal a glaring and absolute win is something that will never stop amazing me in Africa. To me, CAF just told the whole world that the match officials they put in charge of the match were, for lack of a subtle word, morons. What that meant is that those guys don’t know next to nothing when it comes to the AFCON regulations and their decisions to award the trophy to Senegal, which categorically won it, were bullshit. I mean!
Let’s step out of football and bring it into elections. This same thing keeps playing out. In our elections in Africa, the court is now where people go to steal the mandate of the masses. The court will award the seat of power to the second runner-up because the first runner-up did not appeal. They have turned the Electoral Commissions into vibes and Insha Allah. The voice of the people has been muffled with ‘technicalities’.
And every election cycle, we keep recording high rates of voter apathy. People stopped coming out because the court – from the Tribunal to the Supreme Court – will end up overturning mandates and replace them with technicalities.
So, I was not happy with the turn of events in the Senegal vs Morocco case, and it is sad that in AFRICA, OUR FOOTBALL TOURNAMENTS ARE AS GOOD AS OUR POLITICS.
Maryam Ogunremi is a broadcaster, writes from Abeokuta
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