{"id":197038,"date":"2026-03-18T20:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:25:14","slug":"mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco","title":{"rendered":"Mane Criticizes CAF for Awarding Trophy to Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Senegal forward, Sadio Mane, has slammed the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) recent decision over the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, CAF decided to strip Senegal\u2019s 2025 AFCON title and awarded it to Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling, handed down by the CAF Appeal Board, has effectively rewritten the history of the tournament\u2019s final.<\/p>\n<p>According to the official verdict, Senegal\u2019s abandonment of the pitch during the chaotic final match in January constituted a forfeit.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, the board nullified the original result and awarded Morocco a 3-0 walkover victory, declaring them the new continental champions.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a statement released on Instagram, Mane did not hold back his fury, as he alleged that corruption is undermining the sport and eroding the passion of supporters across Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat has happened here goes too far. This is not the football we fight for, nor the Africa we believe in,\u201d Mane said as quoted by GOAL.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is too much corruption in our sport, and that is killing the passion of millions of fans across the continent. The players give their all on the pitch, but decisions off the pitch determine the outcome of matches and titles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Senegal forward, Sadio Mane, has slammed the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) recent decision over the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON. On Tuesday, CAF decided to strip Senegal\u2019s 2025 AFCON title and awarded it to Morocco. The ruling, handed down by the CAF Appeal Board, has effectively rewritten the history of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":197037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-197038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mane Criticizes CAF for Awarding Trophy to Morocco - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senegal forward, Sadio Mane, has slammed the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) recent decision over the 2025 Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mane Criticizes CAF for Awarding Trophy to Morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senegal forward, Sadio Mane, has slammed the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) recent decision over the 2025 Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T19:05:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T20:25:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773865337.136756.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mane Criticizes CAF for Awarding Trophy to Morocco\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-18T19:05:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-18T20:25:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\"},\"wordCount\":216,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773865337.136756.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/mane-criticizes-caf-for-awarding-trophy-to-morocco\",\"name\":\"Mane Criticizes CAF for Awarding Trophy to Morocco - 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