Fujairah player Mohamed Diop is surprised by the withdrawal of the African Cup from Senegal… and criticizes the final referee

Fujairah’s Senegalese player Mohamed Diop was surprised by the decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to withdraw the African Cup of Nations from Senegal and award it to the Moroccan national team, describing it as an “unfair decision” against the “Lions of Teranga”, stressing that his country’s national team deserves to be crowned the continental champion.
Diop told Emirates Today: “What happened during the match was very controversial. Although the Senegal team left the field, this is not a sufficient reason to withdraw the cup,” noting that “the match referee was not accurate in his decisions, and made influential decisions that were not correct, especially in favor of the hosts.”
It is noteworthy that the final match of the African Cup, in favor of Senegal with a clean goal, witnessed events outside the script in the last minutes, after the referee awarded a penalty kick in favor of Morocco, which sparked a protest from the Senegal players who considered the decision incorrect, and the protests escalated to the point of leaving the field and refusing to play, before completing the match, as the penalty kick was missed by player Brahim Diaz, and Senegal scored the winning goal in the first extra period and subsequently won the title.

The Confederation of African Nations had announced in a previous statement that “the Confederation’s Appeals Committee decided, in implementation of Article 84 of the African Cup of Nations regulations, to consider the Senegal national team withdrawn from the final match, provided that the result of the match was recorded as 3-0 in favor of Morocco.”