"The Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) on Thursday rejected a decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Appeals Jury to withdraw the country’s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title, vowing to challenge the ruling through legal channels. “The Senegalese Football Federation unequivocally reaffirms that the Senegal national team is the sole and rightful winner of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, a title earned fairly on the pitch,” Moussa Mbaye, a member of the executive committee of the Senegalese federation, said. FSF President Abdoulaye Fall confirmed that Senegal would escalate the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). “Senegal will stand firm and will legitimately defend this victory that we earned on the pitch, through the talent of our players. We have mandated our lawyers to pursue this procedure before the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” he said. The AFCON 2025 final took place on January 18, 2026, with Senegal defeating Morocco 1-0 in a tightly contested match including a 14-minute delay after Senegalese players left the field in protest of refereeing decisions. The CAF Appeals Board later ruled that Senegal’s stoppage-time walk-off constituted a ‘refusal to play’, triggering an automatic forfeiture that annulled the 1–0 result and awarded Morocco a default 3–0 victory, officially naming them 2025 AFCON champions. The decision has triggered a formal dispute between Senegalese football authorities and CAF."