A Shameful Chapter in African Football: The Controversy of AFCON 2025

I've witnessed lots of ridiculous things in my life, and one of the most recent ones is what plays out in the recently concluded 2025 AFCON, which stretches to early 2026. The competition, which often takes place every two years, this time around was hosted by Morocco, and seeing the ambiance of their cities, stadiums, and the like, we all thought we'd be seeing a positive turnaround for African football. An innovation that'll encourage other nations to follow suit, but to be honest, what was witnessed is a shame to our continent. To make matters worse, to see a change in who actually won the competition surface after months of it being concluded just makes afraid football a ridicule to the outside world.

It's no wonder why many don't take us seriously, and while we're trying to save our name, to see that CAF will personally drag us back to the floor by making an outrageous declaration is just embarrassing. I mean, we all saw how the Morocco team was favored throughout the tournament. There's no doubt about them having great players, but to outrightly cheat your opponent through the red so the host nation can lift the trophy is annoying. This plays out. In almost every game, but there was even more evidence from their game in the quarterfinals against Cameroon and then against Nigeria in the semifinals. Things got out of hand when the same repeated itself against Senegal in the final.

Because I see no reason why the ref would refuse to investigate a clear and obvious foul made against a Senegalese player in such a prestigious final, despite the Senegalese player asking him to go confirm from VAR, and then a few minutes later, the same incident happens this time against Morocco, and the Moroccan player who was fouled refuses to get off the face of the ref and the fourth official until he goes to check the VAR and then awards them a penalty. If I were the Senegalese, I would do exactly what they did, because it's just obvious everything is being done to make sure Morocco wins the competition. I mean, despite the Moroccan boys and officials harassing opponents' goalkeepers and stealing their towels, CAF did nothing about it throughout the tournament, and we saw the same in the final. It's a complete disgrace.

Fine, we understand that Senegalese players staged a walkout on the field, and the rule said whoever does that has forfeited the match, but I'm sure the ref and every other official are aware of these laws, including the VAR and Moroccan officials. So the fact that everyone agrees to continue playing the match despite knowing this fact, thereby forfeiting their rights to use that law again, because the game continues on the field and everyone watched Morocco miss the penalty and end up losing to Senegal. So having another declaration after the month of the competition ending is just a joke and a shame to African football.

CAF should do better and stop following where the money is coming from or favoring the host of the competition year in year out.

All photos are taken and edited on canva.