CAF Disciplinary Board v. Hamari Traoré & Fédération Malienne de Football

Côte d'Ivoire beat Mali 2-1 after extra time in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on 3 February 2024. In the aftermath, Mali captain Hamari Traoré confronted Egyptian referee Mohamed Adel and had to be led away by his own teammates following a scuffle — the conduct that led to the CAF Disciplinary Board charging the Fédération Malienne de Football with misconduct over its players' unsporting behaviour toward the match official.

The Disciplinary Board found Traoré guilty of unsporting conduct toward the match official, suspending him for four matches, two of which were themselves suspended for a one-year probationary period — leaving an effective two-match ban — and fined the Malian federation USD 10,000 for the team's conduct. In a linked finding from the same match, the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football was separately charged with its own team's misconduct and fined USD 5,000.

The case illustrates two things at once: that CAF's Disciplinary Board sanctions both sides of a fixture where each has its own distinct conduct issue, rather than directing action only at the team whose player committed the most visible infraction; and that a headline four-match suspension can carry a materially smaller practical effect once a probationary suspension is factored in, here reducing Traoré's effective ban to two matches.