The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially revised its records to designate the host nation, Morocco, as the champions of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Official updates on the CAF website as of Monday confirm that Morocco is now listed as the winner of the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025, with Senegal recorded as the runners-up and Nigeria placed in third.
This administrative change follows a March 18 ruling by the CAF Appeals Board which overturned the original on-field result of the final played in Rabat on January 18.
On the pitch, Senegal had initially secured a 1-0 victory in extra time following a goal by Pape Gueye, but the match was defined by a chaotic sequence where Senegalese players staged a brief walk-off to protest a controversial stoppage-time penalty awarded to Morocco.
The CAF Appeals Board determined that these actions constituted a forfeit under Article 84 of the AFCON Regulations. Consequently, the final has been officially recorded as a 3-0 victory for Morocco, granting them their second continental title.
In a media statement, CAF clarified the decision by stating, “The Senegal National Team is declared to have forfeited the Final Match… with the result of the Match being recorded as 3–0 in favour of the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football.”
The ruling has sparked significant global debate, with critics arguing that such a decision undermines the fundamental spirit of the game as played on the field.
In response, the Senegalese football federation has condemned the verdict and confirmed its intention to appeal the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a process that could take up to a year to resolve.
Despite the backlash, CAF President Patrice Motsepe defended the integrity of the process.
He emphasized the necessity of adhering to the competition’s legal framework, stating that no nation would receive special treatment and stressing the importance of “upholding the integrity of the competition’s regulations.”
