{"id":53487,"date":"2026-03-22T00:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=53487"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:23:08","slug":"south-africa-backs-senegal-in-afcon-title-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/22\/south-africa-backs-senegal-in-afcon-title-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Backs Senegal in AFCON Title Dispute \u2013 Eduzim News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post_data\">\n<p>South Africa Backs Senegal in AFCON Title Dispute<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sports Correspondent \u2013 South Africa\u2019s Minister of Sport, Gayton McKenzie, has pledged legal support to Senegal as the country challenges the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) ruling to revoke their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title.<\/p>\n<p>The CAF Appeals Board ruled that Senegal violated Article 84 of the AFCON regulations, citing a protest led by coach Pape Bouna Thiaw over a late penalty awarded to Morocco. During the incident, Thiaw briefly instructed his players to leave the field before captain Sadio Man\u00e9 intervened. <\/p>\n<p>Morocco\u2019s Ibrahim D\u00edaz took the penalty, which was saved by goalkeeper \u00c9douard Mendy, with Senegal ultimately winning 1\u20130 after extra time on the field.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the on-pitch result, Senegal confirmed that they are appealing the CAF decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to SABC Sport, McKenzie expressed strong support:<br \/>\u201cWe must not beat around the bush. Senegal are the African champions because football games are not won in the boardroom. We will stand by Senegal and assist them; we\u2019ve got top lawyers in this country that will help out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McKenzie also criticised Morocco over issues surrounding the upcoming Women\u2019s AFCON (WAFCON), accusing the country of unfair treatment of women\u2019s football:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as the WAFCON is concerned, we have to be honest, why do they treat women in such a fashion? They would never do that to the men\u2019s game, so why do the women not know what\u2019s happening a month before the tournament starts?<\/p>\n<p> We will not be held hostage by Morocco. South Africa has much more than Morocco; we are a bigger country with a bigger economy and bigger stadiums, so I\u2019m saying that we are ready to host WAFCON.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s intervention signals a high-profile continental support for Senegal as the appeal process unfolds, highlighting ongoing tensions in African football governance.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<span id=\"wordads-inline-marker\" style=\"display: none;\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- #comments --><\/p><\/div>\n<p>\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#South #Africa #Backs #Senegal #AFCON #Title #Dispute #ZimEye<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa Backs Senegal in AFCON Title Dispute Sports Correspondent \u2013 South Africa\u2019s Minister of Sport, Gayton McKenzie, has pledged&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,11],"tags":[942,151,1869,359,6694,202,1883,150,292],"class_list":["post-53487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi","category-world","tag-afcon","tag-africa","tag-backs","tag-dispute","tag-eduzim","tag-news","tag-senegal","tag-south","tag-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53489,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53487\/revisions\/53489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}