The Confederation of African Football (CAF) made the extraordinary move on Wednesday to strip Senegal of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title and award it to the defeated finalists, Morocco.The move came after a review of an incident at the end of normal time in the January 18 final, which saw the match delayed by 14 minutes after the Senegal players left the field in protest against refereeing decisions.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listMorocco missed a subsequent penalty, which in part led to the protest and a pitch invasion by some fans, with Senegal going on to win the match 1-0 after extra time.The Senegal Football Federation (FSF) is now set to challenge the decision by CAF’s Appeals Board, a move that may spread well beyond African football and take more than a year to resolve.Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at how the situation reached its latest impasse.What was the AFCON final controversy between Senegal and Morocco?The Senegalese players and management were enraged by a late penalty awarded to Morocco, the hosts of the 2025 edition of AFCON, which overlapped into the new year, with the final played in Rabat.At the very end of the allotted eight minutes of stoppage time, Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala awarded the spot kick, following a VAR review of a challenge on Morocco forward Brahim Diaz by El Hadji Malick Diouf.The Senegalese had already protested to the referee in the second minute of stoppage time about an Ibrahim Sarr goal they had ruled out for a foul.Before Diaz could take the penalty, the Senegalese players and coaching …
