Patrice Motsepe to ‘respect’ CAS decision on AFCON final row

JOHANNESBURG – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe said on Sunday that he will “respect” the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision on Senegal’s appeal against being stripped of its Africa Cup of Nations title.

“I will respect and implement the CAS decision. My personal opinion regarding the matter is irrelevant,” he told a press conference in Cairo after a meeting of CAF executives.

The Senegal appeal came after the CAF appeals body overturned a 1-0 win by Senegal over hosts Morocco in the Cup of Nations final on Jan 18.

Many Senegalese players, head coach Pape Thiaw and his staff walked off the pitch in Rabat after Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty. After they eventually returned, Brahim Diaz missed the penalty. Pape Gueye then scored in extra time to win the title decider.

A CAF disciplinary committee later fined various figures from both teams, but did not alter the result.

Morocco then appealed and were awarded a 3-0 victory. Motsepe stressed that the appeal board consists of independent judges and lawyers.

When Senegal played Peru in a 2026 World Cup warm-up in Paris on Saturday, they paraded the Cup of Nations trophy. The team also played in shirts with two stars – one for their first Cup of Nations triumph in 2022 and the other for their disputed January victory.

Motsepe said that he would visit Senegal and Morocco, without giving dates, to stress the importance of “working together to grow African football”.

A statement said CAF is “implementing changes and improvements to their statutes and regulations that will strengthen trust and confidence in (African) referees, VAR operators and judicial bodies.

“These changes and improvements to the statutes and regulations will also ensure that the incidents that took place at the final... do not happen again.”

Motsepe added: “CAF is working with FIFA for the ongoing training of African referees, VAR operators and match commissioners so that they are as good as the best in the world.”

In other developments, he announced that Nigeria-born CAF official Samson Adamu would become the caretaker general secretary of the Cairo-based organisation in place of retiring Veron Mosengo-Omba.

Mosengo-Omba, a former FIFA official born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has reached the mandatory retirement age of 66 for CAF staff.

Meanwhile, Motsepe also revealed several months ago that CAF wanted to expand the Cup of Nations tournament from 24 teams to 28, which would mean more than half the 54 member states qualifying.

He reiterated this ambition during the press conference, but did not clarify when an expanded Cup of Nations might be introduced.

The last four Cup of Nations Finals have all had 24 participants, increased from 16 in 2019.

The 2027 Cup of Nations has been planned as a 24-team tournament with 21 qualifiers joining co-hosts Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for the first edition in east Africa since 1976.

But CAF have already made one major change to the 2027 Cup of Nations format – ditching a 13-group qualifying plan that would have involved every country.

Instead, a preliminary round was introduced featuring the 12 lowest ranked nations. The winners of six two-leg ties will join 42 teams who received byes in the main qualifying competition.

There is to be another Cup of Nations tournament in 2028, after which the continent’s showpiece event will be held every four years.

CAF is also set to introduce a Nations League annually from 2029 with a 16-team final tournament held every two years, Motsepe said.

On his overall vision of football in the continent, he added: “We have to stop this thing of African fixtures not being predictable, consistent and reliable. We must develop football in East Africa, which is an area of much potential.” AFP, REUTERS