DR ‹ › The Confederation of African Football (CAF) executive committee member Samir Sobha has publicly apologized to Morocco over what he described as «a great injustice» during last month's Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat, where Morocco lost 1-0 to Senegal. Sobha said the rules were not properly applied after Senegalese players temporarily left the pitch following a disputed penalty decision. «They were robbed», he said in an interview published Wednesday on The Guardian. «The rules have not been respected, as they should have been in this match… After the Senegalese team left the field, all the players should have been sanctioned with a yellow card». While acknowledging that the result cannot be changed, Sobha insisted that «we should put our ego aside and agree that an injustice has been done to the Moroccan national team», calling on the Royal Moroccan Football Federation to accept his apology. The Moroccan Football Federation had filed a protest with CAF's Disciplinary Board over the temporary walk-off by the Senegalese team, which it argued constituted a violation of Articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON Regulations. However, the Board ultimately rejected the protest concerning the alleged breaches of these provisions. These articles establish a framework for sanctioning teams that abandon matches, including forfeiture by a 3–0 scoreline and elimination.
