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AFCON 2025: CAS to deliver its verdict on the Morocco-Senegal final at the end of November
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has set a date, not yet a winner: its ruling on the AFCON 2025 final, won on the pitch by Senegal and handed to Morocco on paper, is expected at the end of November 2026.
by Lucas Morel · 2 min read
The CAS set a date on Monday 19 October for its ruling on the AFCON 2025 final: it will come at the end of November 2026. Eleven days after the hearing held behind closed doors in Lausanne, the tribunal’s statement says the arbitral panel “has started its deliberations and is continuing them”, and that the decision will be “complete, including the legal grounds, called the CAS award”.
A final with two winners
The case goes back to 18 January 2026 in Rabat. That night Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 after extra time and won the final on the pitch. The evening had gone off the rails: a penalty awarded to Morocco in added time, missed by Brahim Diaz, then most of the Senegalese players walking off before coming back fifteen minutes later.
The Moroccan federation took the file to CAF, and the confederation ruled on the match sheet. On 17 March its appeal jury awarded Morocco a 3-0 win by forfeit, under articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON regulations, which forbid “leaving the pitch before the end of the match without the referee’s permission”. The trophy changed hands without a single passage of play.
The Senegalese Football Federation then went to the CAS against CAF and the Moroccan federation. Its grievance is the administrative sanction, not an ineligible player or a refereeing error, and it denounces “the crudest administrative robbery in the history of our sport”. Coming out of the hearing, CAS director general Matthieu Reeb had already warned, according to Foot Mercato, that the award would not come immediately.
A decision built on legal grounds
The alternative outlined on Monday comes down to one line: either the award upholds the forfeit and Morocco’s title, or it overturns them and hands Senegal back their 1-0 from 18 January. No intermediate scenario is mentioned, no other sanction is quantified.
We laid out the case before the 8 October hearing: the AFCON title was being decided at the CAS. The date is now fixed. At the end of November, in Lausanne, the African title will be settled on legal grounds. The pitch gave its verdict on 18 January; from here it weighs as evidence only.