Eighteen Senegalese football supporters convicted over a pitch invasion at the chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat are awaiting a Moroccan court's ruling on their appeal, after a judge declined to immediately respond to a defence request to review video evidence of the incidents. A court in the Moroccan capital had originally sentenced the fans in February to prison terms ranging from three to 12 months on charges of hooliganism, following disorder that erupted at the end of the AFCON final on January 18. On Monday, an appeals court upheld those sentences, rejecting prosecutors' calls for even harsher penalties.
The fans deny any wrongdoing, with their lawyers arguing they had been forced onto the pitch by surging crowds or were fleeing projectiles and spitting from other spectators — not, as authorities allege, protesting a controversial refereeing decision. Defence lawyer Naima El Guellaf requested that video footage of the incident be shown in court to verify the identities of those convicted, a move the prosecution rejected, arguing that the defendants "were caught in the act" and that "the entire world saw these terrible images live." A second defence lawyer, Patrick Kabou, told reporters that those truly responsible for the chaos were not among those in the dock, and were currently back in Senegal.
The criminal proceedings are unfolding against a much larger institutional crisis gripping African football. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) — the governing body for the sport across the continent — reversed Senegal's 1-0 victory last month, stripping the country of the AFCON title and awarding it to Morocco. Senegal's Football Federation has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Switzerland-based international tribunal that adjudicates disputes in global sport, and a ruling is now awaited. Senegal's Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko publicly condemned the decisions, reflecting the depth of national outrage.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe has since embarked on a diplomatic tour of West and North Africa in an attempt to ease tensions, meeting officials in both Dakar and Rabat. Speaking in the Senegalese capital, Motsepe said CAF would "cooperate fully with any independent inquiry" into its governance, and pledged to abide by whatever verdict CAS delivers. His openness to a corruption investigation is widely seen as damage control for an organisation whose credibility has come under sustained fire.
The affair matters beyond sport. The criminal sentencing of foreign football fans, the reversal of a match result months after the fact, and the intervention of heads of government all point to a governance crisis that threatens the legitimacy of Africa's most prestigious football tournament. With CAS yet to rule, the question of whether the next AFCON will be hosted in Rabat or Dakar remains unresolved — as does the fate of the 18 Senegalese supporters still awaiting the court's final word.