Join on WhatsApp 
Join on Telegram AFCON 2025 found itself mired in thick controversy before the final whistle blew on the tournament’s championship game on January 18 between host nation Morocco and Senegal. The 1-0 extra time loss to Senegal was overshadowed by bizarre sequence of events in the final minutes of regular time, most notably an unauthorized 17-minute long walkout protest by Senegal players which was led by coach Pape Thiaw.
Yesterday, one ESPN football analyst described the match walkout as “the most horrendous, shocking and damaging incident in the history of African football.” The Confederation of African Football (CAF) eventually handed down several penalties and fines to both squads and both football associations.
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw was suspended for five games and fined $100,000 for “unsporting conduct” related to the late match walkout. Senegal’s football federation (FSF) was fined $615,000 due to the behavior of fans and players. Thiaw’s suspension will not apply to the FIFA World Cup this summer in North America.
That same ESPN analyst speculated whether Thiaw’s five match penalty matched the severity of his infraction: “[the five match ban] feels like the severity of his actions, the consequences and the potential consequences have not accurately been taken into account.”
Global sporting news headlines following the January 18 match included frequent mentions of “chaotic” and “embarrassing.” An infamous day for African football, said some.
But stepping back (and looking forward), the month-long tournament that saw 24 CAF member teams playing in nine stadiums across Morocco represented a showcase of continental talent, on and off the pitch, that speaks to just how much has changed in international football.
AFCON’s digital footprint for Africa’s youth
Some numbers: CAF data released this week indicate there were 5.2 billion video views across all social media platforms. With a median age of 19, and 70 percent of Africans being under the age of 30, AFCON 2025 represented the best of a continent that is modernizing infrastructure and reshaping global development trends that defy stereotype.
Average match attendance during AFCON 2025 was 25,000, which is about three thousand fans more than the MLS season average last year in the U.S. Sponsorships are increasingly important component of sports revenue. The 2025 edition of AFCON attracted 23 sponsors, compared to seventeen for the Ivory Coast 2023 AFCON tournament.
It’s also worth contemplating just how far AFCON and African football talent has come in one year. In February 2025, former Liverpool center-back star Jamie Carragher was discussing Mohammed Salah’s chances of winning the Ballon d’Or during a SkySports segment. As the discussion focused on the importance of tournament performance, Carragher dismissed AFCON’s credentials and importance as a major tournament in international football. He walked back the controversial comments, but casual observations like this miss the importance of the real world on-field skills of some of the greatest football stars who, on a recurring basis, are asked to juggle performance, family, nationality and “home.”
As one soccer writer noted for The Athletic last February, “African football has its own unique culture and taps into a different rhythm to European football.”
Going forward
Last week, CAF President Patrice Motsepe announced an executive-level review within CAF of regulations and codes that should have prevented the kind of drama that unfolded on January 18 in Rabat: “To ensure that the CAF Judicial Bodies have the power to impose appropriate and dissuasive sanctions for serious violations of the CAF Statutes, Regulations, Disciplinary Code …”
The events of January 18 represent an opportunity for CAF to clarify and codify regulations, not to equivocate or scapegoat anyone. The passion and speed of the game should be matched by the quality, discipline and consistency of match officiating across a wide range of game components, from unauthorized stoppages to speedy VAR reviews to verbal abuse.
The beautiful game 2.0
The fact that so many media stories across the globe surfaced after the January 18 final match is testament to the dedication of the tournament’s host nation organizers, CAF, its member football associations, its individual players, and the league’s expanding global fan base.
For sporting leagues, success comes in fits and starts, and the search for a more perfect sporting union is constant.
UEFA and Europe’s football associations have spent a decade formulating policies to combat racism in and around the game. Last year, a Spanish study concluded that Barcelona superstar Lamine Yamal (who has deep family roots in Africa) was the target of online racial abuse more than all other La Liga players combined.
Last spring, a Nations League playoff match between Georgia and Armenia concluded in chaos as fans rushed the pitch, throwing objects and fighting. In 2020, several thousand English fans without tickets created widespread chaos around Wembley Stadium as their men’s national team played in the European Championship final; A post-incident report called the events a “national shame.”
This year, the international football community saw an AFCON tournament that heralded the arrival of African football as an equal, no longer a junior partner. Fans saw world-class talent, high drama, controversy, passionate fans, state-of-the-art stadiums, and (importantly) the orderly movement of fans in and out of stadiums and fan zones.
Sixty years ago, the 1965 AFCON involved just six teams playing over a ten-day period. Many stadiums could accommodate just a fraction of the fans that enter today’s larger venues across Africa.
Head-scratching decisions by coaches, players and referees aside, the beautiful game has countless new fans across the globe. Thank Morocco, AFCON 2025 and CAF for that.
