The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has confirmed that Senegal has submitted an appeal case against Confederation of African Football (CAF) for stripping it of the AFCON 2025 title.
The Lausanne-based court disclosed in a media release that it received the appeal by the Senegalese football federation (FSF) on Wednesday.
Senegal won the AFCON 2025 title 1-0 after extra-time despite staging a 15-minute walkout in protest of penalty awarded to hosts Morocco, who failed to convert the spotkick before Senegal triumphed in dramatic fashion.
The Royal Morocco Football Federation launched an appeal to CAF to award Morocco the title by forfeiture and 3-0 scoreline based on its Article 82 and 84, a request eventually granted by CAF’s appeal board.
Following days of rumour, Senegal’s appeal to CAS to overturn the verdict has been confirmed, and the global court for sport-related cases also revealed that Morocco is joined with CAF as defendants.
The West African nation is seeking for CAS to set aside the CAF appeal board ruling, and also afford the federation time to respond to the defendants’ response to the court.
“Registered by CAS on 25 March 2026, the FSF appeal seeks to set aside the CAF decision and declare the FSF winners of AFCON.
“It also requests an immediate suspension of the time limit to submit an appeal brief until the CAF decision is notified with full grounds. The CAF decision rendered on 17 March 2026 was operative only.”
CAS also confirmed it will appoint an Arbitral Panel for the case, but did not set a timeline for hearing due to Senegal’s request for indefinite time to respond to the defendants’ submission to court.
Furthermore, CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb declared CAS’ expertise and readiness to hear the case from all concerned parties given fair hearing.
“CAS is perfectly equipped to resolve this type of dispute, with the assistance of expert and independent arbitrators.
“We understand that teams and fans are eager to know the final decision, and we will ensure that arbitration proceedings are conducted as swiftly as possible, while respecting the right of all parties to a fair hearing.”
