Four months after the most controversial AFCON final in recent memory, the last 15 detained supporters return home but the dispute over who won the title remains unresolved
THERE were scenes of jubilation at Blaise Diagne International Airport on the outskirts of Dakar on Sunday as Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye personally received a group of football supporters who had spent months imprisoned in Morocco their freedom finally secured through a royal pardon granted by King Mohammed VI on the eve of Eid al-Adha.
Faye, who donned a tracksuit for the occasion, told journalists: “We’re very happy to have them back on Senegalese soil.” It was a deliberately informal gesture for a moment loaded with political, diplomatic, and emotional weight a president on the tarmac, in a tracksuit, meeting men who had paid a steep personal price for their passion.
Faye thanked King Mohammed VI for the decision, which he described as “imbued with clemency and humanity.” Yet in the same breath, he could not resist a pointed reminder of where Senegal stands in the broader dispute that gave rise to the crisis hailing the national team as “two-time African champions,” even though the January final remains the subject of ongoing legal proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Morocco’s royal court announced the pardon on Saturday, May 23, citing the occasion of Eid al-Adha to be celebrated on Wednesday in Morocco and the “age-old fraternal ties” between the two countries. King Mohammed VI granted, “on humanitarian grounds, his royal pardon to the Senegalese supporters.”
In February, Moroccan courts had sentenced 18 Senegalese supporters to prison terms ranging from three months to a year. Three of the 18 were released in mid-April after completing their three-month sentences, leaving 15 still incarcerated when the royal pardon was issued. It is those 15 who boarded their flight home on Saturday and walked into President Faye’s embrace on Sunday morning.
Lawyer Patrick Kabou, who represented a large number of the jailed supporters, confirmed they were expected to be released late Saturday.
To understand why 18 football supporters ended up in a Moroccan prison, it is necessary to revisit the events of January 18, 2026 the night of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat, and one of the most chaotic conclusions to a major continental football tournament in living memory.
After a penalty was awarded to Morocco in stoppage time of the second half coming just after a Senegal goal was disallowed Senegalese fans attempted to storm the pitch and hurled projectiles at security personnel. The game stopped for 14 minutes while the Senegal players and staff left the field in protest at the decision. When play resumed, Morocco missed the penalty before Senegal sealed a 1-0 win in injury time.
The victory, however, would prove short-lived in official terms. The Confederation of African Football later overturned the result and awarded the title to Morocco by administrative ruling on March 17, a decision Senegal has since challenged through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
According to the Moroccan public prosecutor’s office, the charges against the 18 supporters were based mainly on footage from cameras at Rabat’s Moulay Abdellah Stadium and on medical certificates for injured law enforcement officers and stewards. Material damage from the violence was estimated at more than 370,000 euros approximately $430,000.
At the end of January, the Confederation of African Football imposed disciplinary sanctions on both national federations for unsporting conduct and violations of the principles of fair play.
The pardon brings to a close the personal ordeal of the 15 remaining supporters, but it does not resolve the wider rupture that the AFCON final opened between two of West and North Africa’s most consequential nations. The fallout from the controversial final strained relations between Morocco and Senegal, with rights groups in Morocco warning against rising anti-sub-Saharan rhetoric and hate speech targeting African migrants and visitors.
King Mohammed VI’s decision to frame the pardon around Eid al-Adha and the fraternal bonds between the two peoples was a gesture calibrated as much for optics as for mercy a sovereign invoking religion and brotherhood to lift a tension that football had laid bare. President Faye’s response grateful in tone, pointed in substance suggests that Dakar received the message while reserving the right to make its own.
Read Also: Senegal Crowned AFCON Champions After Dramatic Final Against Morocco
The case of the AFCON 2025 final and its aftermath remains one of the most contentious chapters in African football’s recent history: a match played, a result overturned, fans imprisoned, a president on a tarmac in a tracksuit, and an appeal pending at sport’s highest court. Sunday’s homecoming was a resolution of sorts but not, by any stretch, the final whistle.
