2025 AFCON final: Morocco and Senegal face the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday

African football plays its final in a courtroom. On Thursday in Lausanne, the Court of Arbitration for Sport hears Morocco and Senegal to settle who won the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, nearly nine months after the final whistle. Behind closed doors, a full day of submissions, and no verdict at the end of it.

A final won on the pitch, scrapped in March

On the pitch, the matter had looked settled. Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 after extra time, through a Pape Gueye goal, at the end of a chaotic final. A penalty awarded to Morocco infuriated the Senegal players; they left the field without permission, and the match, halted for long minutes, eventually ran to its conclusion.

In March, the CAF appeal panel scrapped that result: the walk-off counts as a forfeit. On the sanction, the accounts differ. RMC Sport describes a defeat by default for Senegal, with no win handed to Morocco, while So Foot reports a 3-0 awarded to Morocco under articles 82 and 84 of the tournament regulations. The Senegalese federation then took the case to CAS.

A day of hearings, weeks of waiting

The panel brings together Gérald Simon (France), Ulrich Haas (Germany) and Luigi Fumagalli (Italy). It will hear the parties all day, with no decision at the close of the hearing. “I don’t think it will be today, or tomorrow. I’m fairly sure about that,” warned Matthieu Reeb, director general of CAS, who expects “a few days or even a few weeks” if the arbitrators “want to write a complete decision with the legal grounds”. The tribunal aims to deliver a reasoned ruling “as soon as possible” after the hearing.

One of the two will write its name into the 2025 AFCON honours board. “On the pitch, Senegal won it,” Patrick Vieira told So Foot. Whether the title follows is the question now left to three arbitrators.