Khaberni - The Moroccan Football Federation escalated the issue of the African Nations Cup final to the international federation "FIFA" and the African "CAF" because of the events witnessed during the match. Morocco sees that the Senegalese's leaving the pitch for more than 15 minutes adversely affected them, particularly Ibrahim Diaz, who missed the penalty that ignited the crisis.
The Spanish newspaper "As" revealed in a report on its website, on Tuesday, that the legal argument the Moroccan Federation would use is based on Section 35 of Article 82, which deals with withdrawals in the tournament regulations, and it states: If a team withdraws from the competition for any reason, or fails to attend the match, or refuses to play or leaves the pitch before the end of the match without the referee's permission, they are considered losers and will be permanently excluded from the tournament.
The Moroccan Federation believes there were sufficient reasons to end the final when most of the Senegal players and the technical staff left the pitch, and moreover, when Ibrahim Mbaye wrote on Snapchat "they are robbing us" after the team entered the locker room following the withdrawal, before apologizing hours after Senegal was crowned the champion, upon the team's return to the field following demands from the star Sadio Mane.
The "As" report added: In addition to other details recorded by cameras, Article 82 is considered the legal winning paper for Morocco to prove that the Senegal team left the pitch and should have been considered withdrawn, and the following Article 83 gives more details about the procedures that should have been followed: "The team that is not present on the pitch, wearing playing clothes at the scheduled start time of the match or within at most 15 minutes, is considered to have lost the match, and the referee will record the team's absence and note it in his report, and the organizing committee will make the final decision in this regard."
The Spanish newspaper added: The problem for the Moroccan Federation is that despite what the rules say, the match was resumed with the consent of the referee and both teams, which contradicts the desire to file a subsequent complaint, and it seems impossible that there would be a penalty considering Senegal to have lost the final, but severe disciplinary sanctions will be imposed against the Senegal team and the officials who caused one of the most shameful images of African football in recent years.
It is noteworthy that the Moroccan team received a penalty in the last minute of stoppage time which led to the Senegal players withdrawing from the field before returning again, and Ibrahim Diaz, the tournament's top scorer, missed the penalty with a "Panenka" approach, after it was successfully saved by Edouard Mendy, before his teammate Pape Gueye scored the winning goal in the first extra half.
