“Late justice and a historic decision.” The international media follows the announcement of the coronation of “the Lions”

Yesterday, Tuesday, the Confederation of African Football (CAF)’s Sanctions Appeal Committee announced the defeat of the Senegalese team and lost its last title to Morocco, after the events that took place in the final match between the two countries’ teams in Rabat, generated widespread media resonance. The news appeared on websites and newspaper pages this morning, becoming the talk of the hour in every corner of the world, accompanied by analyzes of performance, symbolism, and the image of African football.

After the Spanish newspaper “Marca” described the announcement of the victory of the “Atlas Lions” as “overdue justice,” in reference to the machinations to which Morocco was subjected during its organization of the last edition of the African Cup of Nations, the Russian website “Sov Sport” considered that “the main reason for the decision to deprive Senegal of the tournament is the withdrawal of its team from the match field, as the law stipulates that the team’s withdrawal for any reason, or not attending the match, or refusing to play, or leaving the field before the end of the match without the referee’s permission, leads to being considered... The team loses and is completely excluded from the competition.”

The website specialized in sports affairs explained, "Such a practice is rare not only in national team championships, but even in club football. In the history of continental championships, this seems to be happening for the first time. As for club competitions, something similar has happened previously. One of the most prominent cases is the Juventus case, where the Torino team was stripped of the Italian championship title for two consecutive seasons (2004/2005, 2005/2006) due to a massive corruption scandal. Then the case of the club Marseille, from which the title was withdrawn in the 1992/1993 season due to bribes.”

Under the title “The African Cup of Nations has a new champion,” the Brazilian website Inverso Online, which described the decision of the Confederation of African Football’s Sanctions Appeal Committee as a historic and technically accurate decision, wrote that “CAF tried for the first time to achieve balance in the situation, that is, impose fines and suspensions, but it maintained the sporting result, but this decision is politically and legally weak.”

Based on the principle of professional competition, the same Brazilian website tried to explain the Senegalese behavior in the final match, stressing that "the most complex aspect lies in the relativity of one of the pillars of sports law: the principle of competition, which gives priority to preserving the result obtained on the field. The logic is well known: to preserve the game as it is played, and to prevent administrative decisions from replacing sporting merit."