CAF Disciplinary Board v. Al Hilal SC (Player Eligibility Protest)

RS Berkane defender Hamza El Moussaoui was handed a 30-day provisional suspension roughly 48 hours before the first leg of the 2025/26 CAF Champions League quarter-final against Al Hilal SC, triggered by a failed doping test. According to Al Hilal, that suspension was then lifted the same night it was imposed — 14 March 2026 — after RS Berkane sent CAF a request by email late that night, which CAF approved within three days. El Moussaoui went on to feature in both legs: the first ended 1-1, with RS Berkane's equaliser coming from a stoppage-time penalty in a passage of play Al Hilal say El Moussaoui was directly involved in; the second leg finished 1-0 to RS Berkane, sending the Moroccan side through 2-1 on aggregate.

Al Hilal sent CAF five separate official statements between 23 March and 3 April 2026 demanding an investigation into El Moussaoui's eligibility. CAF's Disciplinary Committee (case DC 2337) scheduled a hearing for 9 April — two days before RS Berkane's semi-final first leg against AS FAR. Al Hilal objected that the hearing was to be presided over by the same CAF official who had personally signed the 14 March decision lifting El Moussaoui's suspension, without notifying Al Hilal at the time, and demanded he be recused for conflict of interest; separately, the club filed an urgent request to CAF's Appeals Committee to postpone the semi-final itself, citing four articles of CAF's disciplinary regulations and arguing that letting the match proceed before its complaint was resolved risked irreparable harm.

CAF's Disciplinary Board rejected Al Hilal's protest and all related claims in full around 9-10 April 2026, upholding RS Berkane's result on the pitch; the semi-final between RS Berkane and AS FAR went ahead as scheduled. Al Hilal immediately announced it would escalate to CAF's Appeals Committee. That appeal was also rejected, and by August 2026 Al Hilal confirmed it would take the dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sport — though a CAS appeal would not automatically overturn anything: Al Hilal would need to show CAF misapplied its own disciplinary, competition, or anti-doping rules in clearing El Moussaoui, and RS Berkane's aggregate win and CAF's decisions remain in force unless and until CAS rules otherwise.

Separately, and not directly tied to this case by any published CAF statement, CAF Secretary General Véron Mosengo-Omba resigned on 29 March 2026 — just two days before the scheduled 9 April hearing was first publicly confirmed — citing personal projects and retirement after 30 years in football administration; press coverage noted the timing without establishing any connection to this specific dispute. The case is a useful illustration that a club-lodged eligibility protest does not automatically pause a competition's progression: CAF's disciplinary process moved quickly enough that the semi-final schedule was never disrupted, even as the underlying dispute continued well beyond it toward CAS.