Senegal's fight to reclaim the Africa Cup of Nations title it won on the pitch — and then had taken away by a committee — gets its day in court on October 8. The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed Friday that the appeal hearing will be held behind closed doors at its Lausanne headquarters.
No verdict date has been set. CAS judges routinely take several months to rule, which means this saga could drag well into 2023 before anyone knows who officially holds the title.
What actually happened in Rabat
Here's the sequence of events that started all this: Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 after extra time in the January final. Morocco was awarded a penalty in stoppage time. Senegal's players walked off the field in protest. The penalty was saved when play resumed fifteen minutes later. Senegal lifted the trophy.
Then CAF's appeal judges decided Senegal had defaulted the match by leaving the field and handed Morocco the title weeks after the fact. It was a ruling that casually overrode one of football's most basic principles — that the referee's decisions during a match are final. You can't retrospectively void a result because players protested a call that the referee allowed play to continue from.
The logic doesn't hold. And Senegal's legal team clearly believes CAS will see it that way.
The bigger picture
Both nations were distracted by this dispute throughout the World Cup. Morocco reached the quarterfinals in Qatar, becoming the first African side to do so. Senegal went out in the Round of 32, losing to Belgium. Neither camp needed the added noise of a continental title dispute hanging over the tournament.
From a competitive standpoint, AFCON title odds and African football's credibility take a hit every week this drags on unresolved. A continental championship shouldn't require a Swiss arbitration panel to determine its winner months after the final whistle.
October 8 is the hearing. The verdict could come considerably later.
