Souleymane Diawara: Ex-defender questions CAF’s controversial decision

The Confederation of African Football’s [CAF] decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has continued to raise eyebrows across the world and one of the person’s to add his voice to the debate is former Teranga Lion, Souleymane Diawara.

The 46-year-old former Charlton Athletic defender, who is capped 48 times by the 2021 African champions, expressed his shock over the ruling by Africa’s football governing body.

Senegal will contest case at FIFA’s CAS

“I was having a good evening, though—I was watching the Champions League matches, and everything was going well,” Diawara was quoted by 13football.

“Suddenly, I start getting notifications from everywhere; I thought it was like the Marrakech Comedy Festival, I figured it was a joke, honestly, because you don’t wait two months to issue a verdict and hand the title back to the Moroccans.”

CAF activated articles 82 and 84 of the competition’s rule, declaring Senegal losers of the final in January against hosts Morocco by 3-0.

Senegal walked off the pitch in extra time before returning to complete the game where Pape Gueye’s late strike won the tournament after Brahim Diaz had squandered from the spot to put Morocco ahead.

CAF’s ruling stated that, Senegal had forfeited the match due to those actions but the decision has not gone down well globally.

Diawara, who played predominantly in France for Le Havre, Sochaux, Bordeaux, Marseille, and OG Nice said there should have been other sanctions rather than the current decision that has been taken.

“The referee made a decision that might be good or not so good, where people are saying that Senegal violated Article 82, meaning they left the pitch without the referee’s permission, OK. Sanction them, but sanction them right away—don’t wait two months to sanction them.”

Senegal has made its intention to contest the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sports [CAS].