Fédération Sénégalaise de Football v. CAF & Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football

Senegal won the AFCON 2025 final on the pitch 1-0 in extra time in Rabat on 18 January 2026. Late in normal time, DR Congo referee Jean-Jacques Ndala awarded Morocco a stoppage-time penalty; Senegal's players walked off the pitch in protest, delaying the match for roughly 10 to 14 minutes depending on the source, before returning. Morocco's Brahim Diaz then missed the penalty with an attempted Panenka-style chip, and Senegal's Pape Gueye scored the winner in extra time. On 17 March 2026, the CAF Appeal Board ruled, under Articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON Regulations and following a protest by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), that Senegal forfeited the match by leaving the field without the referee's authorisation, setting aside the CAF Disciplinary Board's earlier rejection of that same protest and recording the result as a 3-0 win for Morocco.

The Senegalese Football Federation lodged its appeal with CAS on 25 March 2026, registered as CAS 2026/A/12295 and naming both CAF and the FRMF as respondents. CAS's own media release confirms the appeal seeks to have the CAF decision set aside and Senegal declared AFCON champions, and separately requests that the deadline for FSF's full appeal brief be suspended until CAF communicates the complete grounds for its decision. CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb stated the tribunal would proceed "as swiftly as possible, while respecting the right of all parties to a fair hearing." Preparation for the case continued through mid-2026 alongside the FIFA World Cup, in which Morocco reached the quarter-finals and Senegal was eliminated in the round of 32 by Belgium.

On 24 July 2026, CAS confirmed the appeal would be heard on 8 October 2026, behind closed doors at its Lausanne headquarters, with representatives of all three parties presenting arguments before an arbitration panel; CAS stated explicitly that no verdict would be issued on the day of the hearing itself. As of mid-September 2026, reporting citing CAS's own procedural timeline indicates a final ruling is expected by mid-November 2026, though CAS itself has not published a fixed date for the decision. Morocco's own football establishment has publicly stated it will accept whatever CAS ultimately decides.

The case turns on how the Laws of the Game distinguish a temporary stoppage from a full abandonment, and on the deference CAS gives to a match referee's on-field authority — a live, high-profile test of that doctrine in African football, and a rare instance of a continental sanctioning body stripping an already-completed and refereed match result after the fact.