How Morocco snatched Senegal's AFCON crown - The Sports Agents

0:02This is a Global Player original podcast. It's been like the longest VAR ruling in history. The match finished two months ago and the Africa Cup of Nations trophy has been presented. The celebrations and recriminations were all complete.

0:16Steven Caulker:Or so we thought. Then, just as some last 16 Champions League fixtures were finishing on Tuesday night, a communication dropped from the Confederation of African Football, CAF. So what they said, basically, Senegal had actually forfeited the match by staging their walk-off and the subsequent chaotic drama that we all saw unfold never happened. But why has this taken so long? Can you really strip a country of a title and what happens next? Former Sierra Leone captain Stephen Colker and co-host of the On The Whistle podcast Zane Naby will join us. Welcome to the Sports Agents.

0:54The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. Zane, should we just start with you and explain where we are at and why we are at where we're at? We're sitting in a situation which is an absolute farce for African football, more so for the Confederation of African Football and of course Morocco and to a lesser extent Senegal. Why do I say that? Well we're at a situation where the Senegalese Federation are going to be challenging the ruling by the CAF appeals panel which is to award the AFCon title 2025 to Morocco. This all centers on three effective rulings. One is Article 82 and I'm not going to get into the legalese, but effectively it states that a match is forfeited if a team leaves the play without permission from the referee.

1:47And Article 84 states that if that is met and they forfeit the game, they're also eliminated from the competition. But there's a crucial line in Article 84. It means that Article 83 has to be met, which is that the team didn't arrive on time for the match and didn't take to the field. And Senegal have never been charged for this. The truth of the matter is the referee defined by IFAB 5.2 says that the referee is the sole judge of fact, has discretion and can use his discretion during a final. There was a pause that we saw in the AFCON final. The referee at no point blew for full time. The referee at no point stopped the game.

2:24And at no point did Morocco say they were playing this game under protest. They went out there. We saw the paneka from Brahim Diaz. It went wrong. It was saved by Edward Mendy. The game went into extra time and we saw an absolutely beautiful goal from Pup Gay that set the winner up and set up the celebrations that we saw. Of course, the nightfall of controversy. But I've been speaking to the former head of CAF's disciplinary board, Raymond Hack, and he has told me unequivocally that the CAF appeal board, which has overturned the DC, have got it wrong. They have not interpreted the articles correctly.

3:00And when this goes before CAAS, because this will be decided in Switzerland, it is going to be a case where CAAS in all likelihood is going to decide that Senegal were the rightly winners and they'll be given the trophy again.

3:11Steven Caulker:But they would have had some legal advice before they made this announcement on Tuesday night, presumably, to think that they had a really good case here. One. And two, why did it take so long? The African Cup of Nations final ended on January the 18th. the CAF disciplinary board made their decision on January the 28th. It is inconceivable to me, Gabby, that we had to wait almost two months, 58 days, for the appeals board to make their decision. They could have sat as soon as Morocco put that appeal to them and made their decision because all the information is there. They could have sat either in Cairo, they could have got everyone in, or in a geographical center in Africa, or they could have simply got on a virtual software like Zoom and made this decision.

3:56It did not have to wait 58 days for the nine-member panel to make this decision. And what is really concerning, Gabby, is the fact that their interpretation of the rules is so starkly different to the disciplinary board. It's like chalk and cheese. It's like they were reading something else. And the CAF president, Patrice Motsepes, said last night, isn't it a good thing that we have this plurality in thought between our different chambers? and I can sort of go with that but the fact that it had to wait 58 days and there wasn't a slight difference in interpretation was so vast makes the story go on and it continues to be a black eye for African football as a player Stephen how cynical are you at this decision how much do you despair that we appear to be in an era where more and more decisions are being made off the field to suit whoever it may be.

4:51And I'll throw a couple in. We had Ronaldo's recent red card and suspension sort of knocked away so that he can play in the World Cup because of his apparent previous good behaviour on the field. Or Inter-Miami being in the Club World Cup, the guidelines sort of changing slightly to make sure that Messi would feature there. It's decided more and more off the field, isn't it? Yeah, it's an absolute shambles, to be honest with you. and this just feels like the icing on the cake. Football is heading in, in my opinion, the wrong direction. It's long changed since the game that I fell in love with as a kid.

5:27I think that this decision for me is, I'll use the word shambolic, I can use a lot stronger words in all honesty. For me, Senegal are clearly the champions. They're the people's champions, regardless of whatever decision is made by the appeal board. Senegal are the people's champions, which means the most, right? It matters the most. I think as a player, how can you comprehend this? I think even if I was a Moroccan player, I would feel slightly embarrassed by what's going on because they were beaten on the day and that's that. Football should be decided on the pitch, not off the pitch by people in power.

6:01Steven Caulker:That's the exact point actually that Wayne Rooney said the other night because this all exploded just towards the end of the Man City-Real Madrid second leg tie and Brahim Diaz obviously is celebrating getting through to a quarterfinal when he must have then been handed a note or something, or somebody said, by the way, you're now the AFCON champion. Been a week of notes being handed out to players, hasn't it? Maybe that's what Liam Residio put to Garlaccio. By the way, do you know Morocco? I've just been handed cash. But Wayne Stephen said, you know, on air, I wouldn't want to take that medal if I was a Morocco player.

6:34Steven Caulker:I wouldn't feel right because I know the result of the game and the result was that Senegal won that match. So how do you even physically go around removing medals from players? It's farcical. Well, if I can come in really quickly, Gabby, I mean, Morocco have got to be careful what they wish for because they previously won the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations. And at that competition, we had a group stage to decide the winner. They entered a deciding game against Guinea. Their players left the field in protest. And then the game was resumed and Morocco got the result to win the trophy that year. So does that mean, and we've seen Guinea fans online go and say, well, hang on, if a disciplinary board, or the appeal board can make this decision, then retrospectively, we would like to be crowned the champions in 1976.

7:19So Morocco could, if somebody challenges this, now with precedent, go back to one star. Love that. Yeah. Absolutely love that, by the way. Yeah, that's karma in football.

7:29Steven Caulker:But what you said before, Stephen, this is not what the game is. You know, this is not how you win sporting contests, is it? This is not why people go into stadiums and enjoy this. And there is another aspect of this as well, which I think is quite interesting. And you might be able to kind of either throw some cold water on this or just, you know, light the fire underneath it. Last week, we were discussing the fact that 12 days out from the WAFCON, the Women's African Cup of Nations, the whole thing has been postponed. Morocco supposedly hosting. And one of the conspiracy theories there was that they weren't happy, still not happy about that AFCON final.

8:04Steven Caulker:And so, you know, is this is this all tied in to this decision then being announced just a week later? This is complete blowback. And you have to understand that Morocco and CAF have a very close relationship. So the president of CAF is Patrice Motserpe and Fauzi Lecter is the president of Morocco. Morocco have been CAF's biggest supporters and help in recent years. Obviously, we know they're going to co-host the FIFA World Cup. They have the stadiums, they have the infrastructure, they've invested$5 billion into their football programs. That's athlete excellence. that also includes the diaspora and bringing in players like Ashram Hakimi and Ziyech before that.

8:45But to go back to your question, Morocco has hosted the last three WAFCONs because nobody on the African continent wants to do it or they pull out at short notice. So Morocco has helped CAF out endlessly. I don't need to tell you this, but women's football is not taken as seriously as it should be on the African continent. It's also a tournament that needs investment. However, federations see it as a loss maker. So they don't want to host it. And this has allowed Morocco to come in and be the friends. But it's very strange that suddenly after the AFCON final, the Batola Pro, which is the domestic league in Morocco, has this crunch of fixtures that now they can't host the tournament.

9:25And this clearly shows that it's blowback because the president of CAF, Patrice Motepe, a month ago said that this tournament had to go through because this was the approved FIFA window. And you've been on this pod before, Stephen, when we've talked about AFCON and we've talked about the power of Morocco and their infrastructure and their influence on the continent. They are the dominant power, aren't they? Yeah, I think they're one of. I mean, right now, they're the strongest team in Africa. Well, bar Senegal, let's say. If you look at the FIFA World Rankings, Morocco are right up there, of course, after the World Cup.

10:03But I would say there are other nations. listen that's been in football for as long as I can remember you know Fergie time you know the stronger teams always have that kind of influence on on certain games but what what I don't like to see is decisions being made you know days weeks months after the event I do believe that it should be decided on off the pitch do you have sympathy for the players as Gabby said I mean Gabby sort of asked you from the Senegal point of view how on earth do you I mean how do you get the medals back off them, I wouldn't be. I mean, as one of them put on social media, come and get them.

10:35I'd be exactly the same. Do you have sympathy for both sets of players here? No, I have sympathy for the Senegalese players. I don't have any sympathy right now for the Moroccan players. I do believe they're in an awkward position. I don't know what's going on inside their mind, whether they believe they're worthy winners or not. As I said earlier, I would be embarrassed personally. I wouldn't want to receive that medal because I don't believe that I earned it. but I certainly do feel sorry for the Senegalese players because they gave their all that night. They were clearly frustrated by incidents.

11:08I don't condone their behaviour, by the way. I don't condone their walking off the pitch. Let's get that right. That is unacceptable. Sadio set the standard there by staying on the pitch and calling the players back. And I can understand their frustration at that point. And I suppose there are two things there, Zane, aren't there? If Senegal hadn't acted like a group of eight-year-olds at the time, then we wouldn't be in this situation, I suppose, is one theory. Secondly, Stephen said that they are the people's champions, which I think a lot of people will go with here. But you go back to the last World Cup, where me and Gabby were at the World Cup, Morocco were kind of...

11:43That's where I have some sympathy for the Moroccan players. They were the people's champions. They brought so much joy to that World Cup. 2022 in Qatar's breakout, because it's Africa's and the Arab world's first team in a semifinal. You guys would have been there in Qatar. and seeing how that was such an energizing moment for the region and for the world. They also showed a softer side of Islam, something that we're not used to. Gabi, what happened after the Games? What did the Moroccan players do? They ran to their moms, they ran to their families, they celebrated like true champions, which was a message that transcended everyone.

12:16There was also solidarity shown with Palestine, because the athletes like to use their platform to have some sort of solidarity there. So Morocco really were the darlings of world football at that point. I mean, the victories against Spain, the victories against Portugal. They allowed us all to dream in a way that we never have before. And arguably that performance was probably only maybe second, or not second, it bettered what we saw with the Super Eagles in 1996 when they won Olympic gold in Atlanta. Now, Chappers, I hope you don't mind if I respectfully challenge you on one thing. You mentioned that the Senegalese had walked off the field like a bunch of eight-year-olds.

12:56And it's something I've spoken about extensively. We should never see what Senegal did as petulance because there was a buildup to that moment, 48 hours in the making. Zane, what do you mean by that? When Senegal arrived in Rabat for the final, they took a train and they arrived at the train station. There was inadequate security provided by the local organizing committee. They were given a hotel where they had to move from because it did not meet their standards. And they were made to train at the Moroccan High Performance Centre in Rabat before they played the final. Could you imagine England training at Clairefontaine before they were going to play France in a big final in Paris?

13:37Or Argentina going to Teresopolis to have a training there before playing Brazil at the Maracana? The players and the administrators were not given enough tickets to the final. it only changed after there was a lobby from the Senegalese Federation. Throw into the fact that on the day of the final there was Talgate with the ball boys and the unacceptable behaviour of their ball boys to the Senegalese reserve keeper and before Senegal walked off that field we saw Saar's goal not allowed because of an entanglement between Hakimi and Sek. Why am I saying all of this? There'd been a perception going into this tournament that the referees were favouring Morocco.

14:20And we continue to see that narrative play itself out in the final, where those players, the only agency they had in that moment to say the jig is up and we're holding people to account, is to say we need to get off the field because we want the world to know what is happening here today. What else could they have done? Can I come in on that, please? As a former player who played in Africa for three years, right? those experiences you're talking about i've experienced all of those every single one of them that you've just described i mean i remember playing nigeria away and you know we go to one training pitch then there's loads of kids on that one also you can't be on this one we have to travel 20 minutes to another one we get there there's people on that one it took us about three hours to find a training facility in the end it was just a small bit of grass we're in a hotel where uh 10 of our players then got food sickness we then had uh all the stuff all the stuff before everything you've mentioned, all of that build-up.

15:10But as Sierra Leoneans, we weren't able to walk off the pitch. We weren't in a position to walk off the pitch. I'm sure if we did, the game would have been awarded to Nigeria. And it's not to throw dirt on Nigeria's name, it's just to give you an example of many from my time in Africa. So all of those experiences, Senegal are not alone in those. Does that warrant them walking off the pitch at that moment? I don't know. I just know that I would strongly say if that was Sierra Leone, and Sierra Leone would have been, okay, off you go, three points to Nigeria.

15:39Steven Caulker:Yeah, whether or not there was enough evidence there to merit a walk-off, you've got to understand you are going to face some kind of disciplinary action, aren't you, if you do that? And so we are currently where we are, which is a situation that is still evolving in a year of a World Cup. What impact, if any, will this have, do you think, on the African nations at the World Cup? It's going to continue to make us look, and I say us as I take a pan-African view here, as teams that maybe can't be taken seriously because you have the Moroccans who want this decision decided, not the players, the administrators want this played out in the boardrooms.

16:16You have the Confederation of African Football who have clearly acted too slowly in getting their appeals board to look at this because this should have been expedited. And we should be talking about moments of glory out of the AFCON. You know, CAF are very big on talking to us about how under Patrice Motserpe in the last five years, they've gone from five sponsors to, you know, 111 or whatever it sits at now. They're broadcasting everywhere. And Cav's strategy has been to specifically grow in the US, the UK and Europe. They want to be taken seriously and they want to grow their profits by getting the audiences in these key regions to consume our tournament and our football and our teams and our heroes.

16:58But when we go into the tournament, can you imagine what do the commentators say, Gabby chappers when you go here are morocco the champions of africa who you know won it by a three and all forfeit and here's senegal and oh by the way their president still has the trophy in his office he's saying come and get it and this is going to go to kaz and this is going to play up there but it's unfortunate when we should be talking about football accidents and a continent on the rise let me ask you one thing finally diane just just from a football perspective and and i i haven't And I have no idea whether fixture schedules or groups have been drawn for qualifying or whatever it may be going forward.

17:36Do you know when Morocco might visit Senegal for a match? Are they likely to in the near future? Because I would quite like a ticket. I tell you, that would be incredibly tasty.

17:51And Chappers, I'm sure the Confederation of African Football would give you and Gabi tickets if you wanted to go. but we don't know yet when they will next play. However, Senegal do have a game that they're playing in Stade de France on the 28th of March. And this was the game where they were meant to celebrate with the diaspora because we obviously know there's a huge Senegalese diaspora in France. They were meant to have the trophy at the Stade de France with them. I wonder what we will see. I think, as Stephen had said earlier, we know who the people's champs are and nobody's going to take that away from Senegal.

18:24just like nobody should take the 1976 African Cup of Nations away from Morocco when they left the field.

18:30Steven Caulker:Thank you so much. It's fascinating. It's also kind of sad and disappointing. But I think, you know, we discussed just briefly off air, it feels like it's symptomatic of what's going on in global politics at the moment, isn't it? that there's confusion and there's a lack of rigidity in terms of what is there as a set of rules or a kind of constitution, whatever you want to call it in terms of these organisations, that people just feel they can do whatever they like. Exactly. It's the time of might is right, isn't it? Rather than facts, laws and precedent. The Sports Agents.

19:08The Sports Agents. With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. It's been another varied week on the Sports Agents. We talked Max Dowman after that stunning performance against Everton, his former development coach at Arsenal. Des Ryan joined to speak to us about what needs to happen next in his career. I'm so happy I was there on Saturday. And it was so exciting. It was so emotional. It was great to see. But now, what happens next? I'm at ease with it because of the support that's there, security, education. Matt Henley, Head of Education, Oxford graduate, principal at a good school, been in the club for many years.

19:47Sophie Courtright, she's the player care person. And you've got security, you've got mentors around him.

19:52Steven Caulker:And his family. Exactly. Yeah. So he will be looked after well. The potential. Oh, my God. And I always felt professional football players were developed mainly under 18. So he's got those two years still to go. And with Bodo Glimp's Dream Champions League campaign coming to an unfortunate end, And Norwegian football expert Lars Sivetsen explained who they had to thank for this season's success. One of the secrets, I think, behind the success this season, it is actually all thanks to Tottenham, just not in a way you might expect. Because you might remember last year, they came up very short in the Europa League games against Tottenham.

20:27They were not themselves in those games, but they were shocked in that game by how physical Spurs were. Because say what you want about Tottenham, but if you look through the lineup they had against Bordecai, There's a lot of dudes who are like six foot something and full of muscles. And they just couldn't get near him in the challenges. They were really struggling physically. They got in touch with Tottenham to ask them and to learn more about how they prepare physically. Because they were like, you guys are so much stronger than us. What's going on? And they were apparently told by Spurs, no, we buy physique.

20:55I guess this is what's the transfer market. You get it off the shelf. On current evidence, Lars, I think Tottenham might be back in touch with Bogo at the moment. i said it's been varied it's been heartwarming oh it has hasn't it what the campaign for bodo glimped i was devastated as you can imagine i know you were if you've been listening to this on the news agents feed which i would imagine at the moment is anything but heartwarming search for the sports agents to listen to those episodes in full on youtube global player or wherever you get your pods hit subscribe or follow and remember we love hearing from you

21:32Steven Caulker:So please get in touch on email, the sports agents at global.com or on social media or via the link in the show notes. New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Thanks for listening. The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.

21:48This has been a Global Player original production.