Senegal football fans slammed AFCON’s decision to strip the country of its Africa Cup of Nations title and give it to Morocco, calling the move a “disgrace for Africa” as they woke up to the news Wednesday.
Gora Ndiaye, a resident of Dakar who works as a chauffeur, told AFP he felt like he had “been hit over the head” when he heard the news on the radio.
With the news ricocheting across social media and the airwaves Wednesday fans now wait for a promised appeal by their country’s football authorities.
“If this law was applicable, it should have been applied immediately and the cup should have been awarded to the Moroccans” Ndiaye said, calling the move “a disgrace for Africa”.
Several Senegalese players controversially walked off the pitch in Rabat during the final on January 18 in protest when the hosts were awarded a penalty late in second-half stoppage time.
After Senegal’s players eventually returned having been coaxed back onto the pitch by captain Sadio Mane, Morocco missed the penalty and Pape Gueye went on to score the goal in extra time that gave his team a 1-0 victory.
CAF said that having studied an appeal by Morocco, “the Senegal national team is declared to have forfeited the match” and the result was “officially recorded as 3-0” in favour of Morocco.
“I started by laughing and being surprised at the same time, because it really shocked me that two months later they took away our victory”, Assietou Diallo, a 25-year-old accounting assistant, told AFP from downtown Dakar.
Senegalese press was unanimous, with headlines such as “Big Continental Farce”, “Joke of the Century” and “Unprecedented Scandal”.