Regragui slams Senegal eight months after Africa Cup of Nations final still awaiting CAS verdict

Eight months after the Africa Cup of Nations final, Morocco and Senegal are still waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to settle their dispute. Walid Regragui, now a consultant, seized a public speaking opportunity to express his frustration over the slowness of the proceedings and the turn taken by this match.

“The big loser today is African football,” said the former Morocco coach. Regragui believed that this final between the two best teams on the continent over the last five or six years could have been a showcase for African football, in stadiums meeting European standards. Instead, according to him, all the usual flaws typically leveled at the sport on the continent were exposed for all to see.

His main grievance targets the Senegal coaching staff’s decision to have their players leave the pitch when a penalty was awarded to Morocco for a foul on Brahim Diaz. “I hold it a bit against the Senegal coach, because we didn’t give a good image,” he lamented. “Win or lose, in the end, you made a decision that tarnished African football. On this final, we proved right those who criticize us.”

Regragui also noted that some Senegal players had taken advantage of this interruption to check their phones in the dressing room, citing notably Ibrahim Mbaye. He also raised a sporting question: could the prolonged absence of the opposing team for around fifteen minutes have unsettled Brahim Diaz when taking the penalty? To support his point, he cited the case of Kylian Mbappé, who himself invoked a two-minute game interruption to explain his missed penalty against Morocco at the World Cup.

While acknowledging faults on both sides, Regragui insisted on the collective damage inflicted on African football by the incidents of this final, whose sporting outcome remains pending the CAS decision.