The Deputy Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Gideon Hammond, has backed the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title.

According to him, the CAF Appeal Board applied the regulation correctly, as Senegal’s players walked off temporarily rather than fully, and therefore deserved the forfeiture ruling.

He asserted that those criticising CAF are reacting emotionally rather than making a fair assessment of the case, adding that criticisms are normal with such rulings.

Senegal responds to CAF over 2025 AFCON win nullification

“Legally, if you want to look at it, CAF may be right. But if you are attaching emotions to it, then the outcome of whatever ruling is unsatisfactory. Definitely, you’ll get a backlash for that decision. But I think that at any point in time, what does the spirit and the letter of the law say?

“If this is what the law does, the spirit and the letter say that when you forfeit a match, then you forfeit the points as well. I think that settles it from there. We call that a forfeiture because they didn’t walk out fully. They still came back and continued the match,” he told Channel One TV during an interview.

This comes after the CAF Appeal Board ruled that Senegal breached Article 84 of the regulations, which prohibits staging a walk-off. As a result, Senegal were deemed to have forfeited the game, and the final result was nullified.

Applying the regulation, Morocco were declared champions with a 3-0 scoreline against Senegal as punishment for the temporary walk-off.

SB/JE

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