2025 Africa Cup of Nations

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, the 35th edition of the continent's men's football championship, produced a final that was won twice. On the pitch, Senegal beat the hosts, Morocco, 1-0 after extra time. In March 2026, a ruling from the Confederation of African Football turned that result into a 3-0 win for Morocco. Between the two outcomes sit a walk-off lasting roughly a quarter of an hour, a disturbance in the stands, and a rulebook article that few supporters had ever read. How did a tournament that Morocco inherited from a country that lost its rights, and that was played over Christmas for the first time, end in a dispute like this? And what did 24 teams, nine stadiums and a lion mascot add up to before that night?

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• 2. A Host Chosen Late

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  On the 30th of November 2018, CAF took the 2019 tournament away from Cameroon because preparations were moving too slowly. The confederation then accepted a request from its former president, Ahmad Ahmad, to stage the next edition in 2021. That decision pushed every later host back a slot. Ivory Coast, the original 2021 host, took the 2023 edition, and Guinea was handed 2025, which had no host until then. CAF's president confirmed the new timetable after meeting Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan on the 30th of January 2019.

  Guinea's turn did not last. On the 30th of September 2022, current CAF president Patrice Motsepe announced that Guinea had lost the tournament, citing inadequate and slow preparations. A fresh bidding process opened. On the 27th of September 2023, CAF awarded the 2025 edition to Morocco and the 2027 edition to a joint bid from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Morocco had hosted only once before, in 1988.

  The calendar needed bending as well. The expanded FIFA Club World Cup occupied June and July 2025, so the continental tournament moved to the winter. It opened on the 21st of December 2025, the first time the competition ran across the Christmas and New Year period. The final whistle was scheduled for the 18th of January 2026.

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• 3. Road to Rabat

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  The qualifiers ran from the 20th of March to the 19th of November 2024, and they began with a small preliminary round. Eight teams were seeded into two pots of four using FIFA rankings from the 15th of February 2024, after a draw at CAF headquarters in Cairo. Eritrea and Seychelles were excluded. The teams met in four home-and-away ties, and the winners were Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan. They joined 44 teams that had entered directly, making 48 nations in twelve groups of four. The group draw took place in Johannesburg on the 4th of July 2024.

  Morocco went through the qualifiers even though its place was guaranteed as host. It played in Group B. Ghana, a four-time African champion, finished bottom of Group F and missed the tournament for the first time since 2004. Tunisia, meanwhile, qualified for the 22nd time and reached its 17th tournament in a row. It has not been absent since 1994.

  Comoros, Gabon, Sudan and Zimbabwe returned after missing 2023. Benin and Uganda came back after an absence of almost five years. Botswana qualified for only the second time, following its debut in 2012. Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Namibia had played in 2023 but did not make the 24-team field.

  The finals draw was held on the 27th of January 2025 at the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat. Four former players conducted it: Mustapha Hadji of Morocco, Serge Aurier of Ivory Coast, Aliou Cissé of Senegal and Joseph Yobo of Nigeria. The match schedule followed four days later.

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• 4. Stadiums and Spectacle

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  Tangier Grand Stadium, with room for 75,500 people, was the largest of the nine venues that CAF and the Moroccan federation announced across six cities. Rabat's Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium held 69,500. Agadir's Adrar Stadium held 46,000, and Marrakesh's stadium held 45,240. Casablanca's Stade Mohammed V and the Fez Stadium each held 45,000. Rabat supplied three smaller grounds as well: Moulay El Hassan at 22,000, Rabat Olympic at 21,000 and Al Medina at 18,000.

  The mascot, a Barbary lion named Assad, was revealed on the 8th of December 2025. It nodded to Morocco's national animal and to the nickname of the national team. Assad is also the Arabic word for lion.

  On the 10th of November 2025, CAF and Puma unveiled the match ball, called Itri. It was covered in red and green zellij, the geometric mosaic art of Morocco, and used Puma's Orbital 6 technology. Its stars, flowers and circles were meant to express the joy of African football. A gold edition was produced for the final.

  The official song, Africallez, played on the phrase Africa allez. Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo performed it with Moroccan artists Lartiste and Jaylane. The winners were promised US$10 million, up from US$7 million in 2023.

  Viewers watched across the world. SuperSport covered Sub-Saharan Africa, and beIN Sports held rights in places as far apart as Australia, France and the Middle East and North Africa. DAZN carried matches in Germany and Japan. In Britain and Ireland the rights belonged to Channel 4, though most Irish coverage sat on a channel that is not widely available there.

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• 5. Rules and Referees

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  On the 26th of November 2025, CAF published a list of 73 appointed match officials: 28 referees, 31 assistant referees and 14 VAR officials. Every one of them came from within Africa. Assistant referees were shared across several refereeing teams, so the same names recur in the match assignments.

  The group stage was built around a simple promise. The top two in each of the six groups advanced, along with the four best third-placed teams. A win earned three points and a draw one. Ties were settled by Article 74 of the regulations, which starts with points in the matches between the tied teams. It then moves to goal difference and goals scored in those games, then to the whole group record, and ends with a drawing of lots.

  Discipline had its own arithmetic. A red card meant a suspension for the next match, as did two yellow cards across two matches. After the group matches, all single cautions were wiped away. A player who had already collected two yellows still served his ban.

  That system caught senior players late in the competition. Records list Kalidou Koulibaly and Habib Diarra of Senegal among those suspended for the final against Morocco on the 18th of January 2026.

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• 6. Stars of the Tournament

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  Sadio Mané was named best player of the tournament, and Brahim Díaz won the Puma Golden Boot with five goals. Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou took the Golden Glove. The Best XI placed Bounou in goal beside Achraf Hakimi, Moussa Niakhaté, Calvin Bassey, Noussair Mazraoui, Ademola Lookman, Idrissa Gueye, Pape Gueye, Díaz, Victor Osimhen and Mané.

  The path to those honours had surprises. Defending champions Ivory Coast went out in the quarter-finals, beaten by Egypt. The semi-finals paired Senegal with Egypt and Nigeria with Morocco, and Egypt and Nigeria later met in the third-place play-off.

  TotalEnergies sponsored a Man of the Match award after every game, with a trophy handed over at the final whistle. In the final, the prize went to Senegal's Pape Gueye.

  That last award made the evening stranger, because the match it honoured was about to be remembered for events far from the midfield.

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• 7. Final Minutes

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  In the fifth minute of stoppage time, referee Jean-Jacques Ndala whistled a foul during a Senegal build-up, and Ismaïla Sarr then put the ball in the net. The score had stayed at 0-0 for most of regulation time. Ndala judged that Abdoulaye Seck had made contact with Achraf Hakimi, who fell. Because the goal came after the whistle, VAR could not be consulted.

  Three minutes later, Brahim Díaz was held by Senegalese defender El Hadji Malick Diouf. After a VAR review, the referee awarded Morocco a penalty. Senegal's head coach, Pape Thiaw, disagreed with both rulings and told his players to leave the pitch. The suspension lasted about 15 minutes by one account in the record, and 17 minutes by another.

  During that pause, trouble broke out in the stands behind the goal defended by Bounou. Several Senegalese supporters tried to storm the pitch and threw chairs and other objects. Stewards and security staff were hit and kicked. Police in protective gear gathered in front of the stands and charged, and then formed a barrier that stayed in place until the end of the match.

  Play resumed with tension still visible on the far side of the field. Díaz took the penalty, and Senegal goalkeeper Édouard Mendy saved it. Regulation time ended 0-0.

  At least one steward was seriously hurt and carried off on a stretcher. Social media claims spread that he had died. Moroccan authorities, including the General Directorate for National Security, said no steward or stadium worker had been killed and called the reports false.

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• 8. Verdict and Appeal

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  The day after the final, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation announced a complaint against Senegal to FIFA and CAF. It argued that events before the penalty kick had affected the normal course of the match and the performance of the players. CAF issued a statement condemning what it called the unacceptable behaviour of some players and officials. FIFA president Gianni Infantino went further, criticising some supporters, along with Senegalese players and technical staff. All available footage, CAF said, was under review.

  Police made arrests in the meantime. Eighteen Senegalese fans and one Algerian fan face trial at the Rabat First Criminal Court. The charges include taking part in violence at a sporting event, forcing their way onto the pitch, damaging facilities, assaulting officers, and throwing objects and liquids.

  The sporting ruling rested on Article 84 of the tournament regulations. It provides for a forfeit when a team leaves the field of play without the referee's permission. The Appeal Board applied it, and Morocco was officially recognised as champion, giving the country its second continental title after its first in 1976.

  The decision drew criticism in Senegal. International outlets noted how unusual it is to overturn a completed final and questioned how the regulations had been read. The Senegalese federation said it would take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which acknowledged receiving Senegal's appeal at the end of March.

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