Raymond Hack, former president of the CAF Disciplinary Board, has claimed that the Morocco national team staged a walkout in the final of the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which the country eventually won.
Hack, who served in numerous roles across CAF’s legal body,
made the claim in a chat with Robert Marawa on Wednesday.
He was reacting to the CAF Appeals Board’s verdict that
stripped Senegal of the 2025 AFCON title and named Morocco the champions.
The ruling said Senegal had breached Articles 82 and 84 of
the AFCON regulations after several of its players walked off the pitch to
their dressing room in protest of a referee’s decision.
The verdict was made while addressing Morocco’s appeal
challenging an initial decision by CAF’s Disciplinary Committee, which had
dismissed the country’s plea to overturn the match.
The decision continues to generate reactions across the
football world.
Adding his voice to the debate, Hack claimed that the final
game of the 1976 AFCON is a historical precedent for the case.
The format of the 1976 AFCON differed from the current
arrangement. Only eight teams participated, divided into two groups of four.
The top two teams from each group qualified for the final round, where they
played each other in a round-robin format, and the team with the most points
won the trophy.
Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt and Guinea were the four teams that
advanced to the last round. After the first two rounds of games, only Morocco
and Guinea stood a chance of winning the trophy based on accumulated points.
Incidentally, both teams were scheduled to play each other in the last game.
Guinea needed a victory to clinch the title, while a draw would be sufficient
for Morocco.
The Atlas Lions scored a late goal by Ahmed Makrouh to
secure a 1-1 draw and won their first-ever AFCON trophy.
“There are precedents in this regard. Go back to the 1976
AFCON when Guinea played Morocco, and Morocco walked off the pitch. Then they
came back onto the pitch. The game was not abandoned,” Hack said.
The Senegalese FA said it has filed an urgent appeal of the
CAF Appeals Board verdict before the CAS.
The Senegalese government also called for an “independent
international investigation” into an alleged corruption within CAF over the
ruling.
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