The Africa Cup of Nations: how it works, and why the latest title is still stuck at CAS

The Africa Cup of Nations, run by CAF since 1957, brings together 24 national teams every edition, but the most recent one still doesn't have an undisputed champion: Morocco has held the title since March 2026, when CAF upheld an appeal filed by the Moroccan federation and overturned Senegal's win on the pitch. The case goes to trial at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne on 8 October 2026.

24 teams, six groups, and the road to the final

Since the 2019 edition, the Africa Cup of Nations has featured 24 national teams split into six groups of four. The top two from each group advance automatically, and the four best third-placed teams fill out the 16 spots in the knockout stage. From there it's straight elimination: round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, a third-place match and the final, adding up to 52 games in total.

Reaching the final tournament, though, takes a separate qualifying campaign. Of CAF's 54 member federations, 52 enter qualifying: the 8 lowest-ranked in the FIFA rankings play a two-legged preliminary round for 4 spots. Those 4 join the 44 highest-ranked teams, and the 48 are split into 12 groups of four, playing six rounds home and away; the top two from each group, 24 teams in total, advance to the final tournament.

One episode from the 2025 qualifiers itself shows that deciding a match off the pitch is nothing new: Nigeria were awarded a 3-0 walkover after their squad was held at a Libyan airport for more than 12 hours on arrival, and the federation refused to play before flying the team home.

The tournament was born in 1957 with just three teams, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and became a biennial event from 1968. In 2013, the competition shifted from even to odd years so as not to clash with the World Cup; CAF expects to reverse that and return to even years from 2028.

Egypt leads the list of champions

Egypt is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, with seven titles, including three in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Cameroon comes second with five, and Ghana third with four. In total, fifteen different countries have lifted the trophy.

The Rabat final that never actually finished on the pitch

The 2025 edition was hosted by Morocco, and the final, played on 18 January 2026 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, pitted two teams chasing only their second title in history: Morocco, who had won just once, in 1976, and Senegal, champions a single time, in 2021.

The two sides had already met 31 times before that night, with Morocco on top: 18 wins, 7 draws and 6 Senegal wins, including decisive clashes in World Cup qualifying for 1970, 1994 and 2002. Even so, that was the first time the two nations had ever met in an Africa Cup of Nations final, or even in a final tournament.

The chaos began near the end of regulation time. Abdoulaye Seck's header rebounded off the crossbar, and Ismaïla Sarr headed home what looked like the title-winning goal for Senegal. Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala disallowed it for an alleged push by Seck on Achraf Hakimi in the build-up, without a VAR review.

The response came soon after: a penalty for Morocco, for a foul on Brahim Díaz, reviewed and confirmed by VAR. Díaz went for a Panenka-style chip, and Senegalese goalkeeper Édouard Mendy saved it, sending the game to extra time.

It was in that window that Senegal's bench, led by coach Pape Thiaw, pulled the players off the pitch in protest. The match was halted for somewhere between 14 and 21 minutes, depending on the account, until midfielder Sadio Mané convinced his teammates to return and play for the title.

In extra time, midfielder Pape Gueye settled it: a lone goal in the 93rd or 94th minute, depending on the source, sealing a 1-0 win for Senegal.

The reaction to the chaos in Rabat

FIFA president Gianni Infantino condemned the episode in a statement: "It is unacceptable to leave the field of play in this manner, and equally, violence cannot be tolerated in our sport, it is simply not right." Moroccan coach Walid Regragui struck a similar note: "The image we gave of African football was rather shameful."

Pape Thiaw, on the Senegalese side, defended the decision straight after the match, in an Instagram post: "It was never my intention to go against the principles of the game I love so much. I simply tried to protect my players from injustice." The next day, speaking to beIN Sports, the tone shifted: "After thinking about it, I realised that I shouldn't have asked them to go off. I apologise for that."

Gueye, the scorer of the winning goal, summed up the squad's feeling to reporters: "What we felt was injustice. There had been a foul against us before and the ref chose not to look at VAR, we were frustrated."

CAF overturned the result months later

On 17 March 2026, two months after the final, CAF's appeal board ruled on the appeal filed by the Moroccan federation and overturned the result: it ruled that Senegal had "forfeited the final" and turned Senegal's 1-0 extra-time win into a 3-0 default loss, handing the title to host nation Morocco. That is how the North African country reached its second continental title, fifty years after its first.

Senegal appealed to CAS, and the hearing now has a date

The Senegalese Football Federation called the ruling a decision that "discredits African football" and announced an appeal the very next day, 18 March. The formal filing came on 25 March, and CAS confirmed receipt the day after, saying the appeal "seeks to set aside the CAF decision and declare the FSF winners of AFCON."

In April, CAS denied a request for a fast-track process, pushing any ruling back until after the 2026 World Cup. The hearing was only set on 24 July, for 8 October, in Lausanne, behind closed doors, with no target date for a verdict.

Achraf Hakimi, the Moroccan full-back and one of the 2026 Ballon d'Or nominees, publicly defended his country's title, saying Morocco deserved the trophy both for its campaign and for the way the match ended on the pitch.

A 2019 precedent that could favour Senegal

This is not the first time CAF has tried to settle in a boardroom what didn't end on the pitch. In 2019, in the CAF Champions League final, Wydad AC stopped the match against Espérance de Tunis to protest a goal disallowed without a VAR review. After an 80-minute halt, the referee ruled it a forfeit in favour of Espérance. CAF ordered a replay, but CAS quashed that decision and sent the case back to CAF's own disciplinary bodies, which kept the title with Espérance.

Raymond Hack, the CAS arbitrator now reviewing the Morocco-Senegal case, has already drawn the parallel publicly: "In 2019, Wydad were in a similar situation in a CAF club championship, where CAS ruled that the referee's decision is final. Only a referee can end a game. No matter what happens, only the referee can end it."

Overturning a result by administrative decision has also happened outside Africa: at the 2012 Asian Olympic qualifiers, CAS upheld Oman's 3-0 walkover win over Qatar after the Qataris fielded a suspended player. Closer to home, in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA also stripped South Africa of a win over Lesotho, again over an ineligible player rather than a walkoff.

A final with record crowds and audiences

The chaos didn't keep fans away: the 66,526 supporters at the Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat set the stadium's attendance record.

CAF logged 61% growth in audiences across its European, Asian and South American markets, with more than three million viewers for the final alone on Britain's Channel 4, an all-time high of over four million in Germany, and a notable debut in India, with more than 800,000 people streaming the tournament.

By beIN Sports' own numbers, Pape Gueye's goal was watched by 97.3 million people across Middle East and North Africa markets, nearly triple the 33.2 million who saw the previous edition's winning goal. Even so, the final wasn't even the tournament's most-watched match: that record went to Egypt 2-2 Zimbabwe, settled by a stoppage-time Mohamed Salah goal, with 98.3 million viewers.

A trophy only sport's own courts can settle

As of this guide, the Court of Arbitration for Sport had not published any ruling on the case, and the 8 October hearing had not yet taken place. Morocco remains the registered champion, and Achraf Hakimi counts the title among his honours for the season that also earned him a Ballon d'Or nomination, but the trophy could formally change hands again if Senegal's appeal succeeds.