AFCON 2025 was the gold standard of African football until a chaotic final which would be remembered for all the wrong reasons

Expectations have always been low for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), but the last four weeks of the 2025 edition in Morocco have felt like the future.

We saw world-class stadiums, immaculate pitches, and a level of organisational precision that made CAF President Patrice Motsepe’s “best ever” claims feel less like hyperbole and more like a statement of fact.

AFCON had provided elite competition, tactical masterclasses and world-class goals, making football fans hopeful that Africa’s biggest football competition can rival its global counterparts. But as the final whistle approached in Rabat on Sunday, the gold standard evaporated in a scene reminiscent of a horror movie.

As delightful as AFCON 2025, which began in December, had been, what will remain long in the memories of viewers will not be the infrastructure or its $1.6 billion investment. It will be remembered for the moment Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala Ngambo disallowed Ismaila Sarr’s header without conferring with VAR and handed the hosts a controversial lifeline from the penalty spot within minutes.

In that instant, the modernisation of the AFCON 2025 was stained by the raw, unfiltered chaos that has historically defined, and sometimes defaced, African football.

Pape Thiaw, the coach of the Senegal team, asked his players to walk off the pitch, a move he later apologised for, while the legendary Sadio Mane urged his teammates to stay on and ‘lose like men’ instead of forfeiting the game. What followed was a surreal descent into madness.

We saw players and coaching staff in an open confrontation. We saw Senegalese fans, photographers, and security forces trading blows with chairs and stools. We even saw the press box—a place of supposed professional detachment—turn into a boxing ring as rival journalists exchanged punches.

When Pape Thiaw’s press conference is cancelled due to security concerns in the media centre, you know the system has failed. When the only person showing a semblance of leadership is Sadio Mane—refusing to walk off the pitch in protest and pleading with fans to retreat—it highlights a vacuum of authority that no amount of shiny new stadiums can fill.

The Shadow of the ‘Morocco Conspiracy’

While there is no hard evidence of a conspiracy, the context is impossible to ignore. Morocco is currently the most influential footballing nation on the continent. The Lions reached the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, beating heavyweights like Portugal and Spain in the knockout rounds. They have invested billions, they are the 2030 World Cup hosts, and they are widely perceived to have the ear of CAF in a way other nations do not.

With a team of superstars, including Achraf Hakimi, Brahim Diaz, and Sofyan Amrabat, the Atlas Lions had enough firepower to win their first AFCON title in 50 years. Yet, they resorted to antics such as removing opposition keepers’ towels, intimidating fans, and pressuring referees to swing decisions in their favour.

The ghost of the 2024 Women’s AFCON final—where Nigeria beat Morocco amidst officiating controversy that led to the firing of CAF’s director of refereeing—loomed large over this tournament. For the ordinary spectator, the optics were terrible. When Motsepe speaks of “integrity, impartiality, and independence,” but the “ordinary spectator” sees a host nation seemingly favoured in the dying seconds of a final, the messaging doesn’t just fail; it backfires.

A Warning for 2030

The chaos in Morocco isn’t unique—we saw similar organisational incompetence at the 2024 Copa America in Miami. But for Africa, the stakes are different. We are constantly fighting for global respect, constantly trying to prove we can host the world.

Morocco 2025 promised to be the ultimate proof of concept for the 2030 World Cup, but CAF and Morocco have a lot of cleaning up to do. Shiny stadiums are great, but they are just hardware. If the software—the officiating, the security, and the perceived integrity of the game—is glitchy, the whole system crashes. And in the final of AFCON 2025, it crashed spectacularly.