Veteran Coach Patrick Phiri feels the Confederation of African Football Appeal Board’s verdict to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and hand it to Morocco is a demoralizing development for Africa.
CAF on Tuesday announced that Senegal had forfeited the final of the TotalEnergies Afcon Morocco 2025, with the match formally recorded as a 3-0 victory in favor of Morocco in accordance with Article 84 of the tournament’s regulations.
Article 84, states that a team is defeated if for any reason, withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, or refuses to play, or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorization of the referee, it shall be considered the loser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition.
Speaking exclusively to Bolanews, Phiri described the ruling as disheartening for African football.
“It’s a very demoralizing development because it has never happened anywhere in the world. It has just happened in this tournament. It’s disheartening to all the football-loving family to see a team that worked very hard in the tournament,” he said.
“This has broken the hearts of the Senegalese and all the Africans who love football because we feel Senegal deserves the Cup; they won it through the pitch,” added Phiri.
However, the former Chipolopolo Boys coach praised CAF for transformation.
“Having said that, still we cannot forget the great work that this administration in the office of CAF has done—football is improving every day; they have addressed a lot of issues very well. We should sit down as a family and resolve this problem collectively and continue supporting the administration of CAF,” concluded Phiri.
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