AFCON 2027 Starts With the Last Champion Still in Dispute

2026-09-26 — Afridiaspo Sports Desk

AFCON 2027 qualifying begins with 48 teams while CAS prepares to hear Senegal’s appeal over the title awarded to Morocco.

Africa is beginning a new race for continental glory before the argument over the last trophy has ended.

On Thursday, September 24, the first full round of qualifiers for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations begins across the continent. Forty-eight national teams will compete through six matchdays for places at next year’s finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

But the official identity of the previous champion remains before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Senegal celebrated a 1–0 extra-time victory over Morocco in the January 2026 final in Rabat. Two months later, CAF’s Appeal Board treated Senegal’s 14-minute walkout during the match as a forfeiture, changed the result to a 3–0 victory for Morocco and transferred the title. Senegal appealed. CAS has scheduled a hearing for October 8.

The result is an extraordinary overlap: Morocco and Senegal are starting their next AFCON campaigns while sport’s highest court is still deciding who should own the last one.

Afridiaspo key facts

How the final became a court case

The dispute began in stoppage time of the AFCON final at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on January 18.

After Morocco were awarded a late penalty, Senegal’s players left the field in protest. They returned approximately 14 minutes later. The match continued, went to extra time and Senegal won 1–0.

What happened next separated the sporting result from the administrative record.

CAF initially imposed disciplinary sanctions connected to the disorder. Morocco then pursued an appeal arguing that Senegal’s departure from the field should be treated as abandonment and therefore as a forfeiture.

On March 17, CAF’s Appeal Board ruled that Senegal had forfeited the final. It recorded Morocco as 3–0 winners and awarded the kingdom its second continental title, 50 years after its first.

Senegal rejected the ruling and took the matter to CAS in Lausanne. A March 25 CAS media release confirmed that the Senegalese Football Federation was appealing against CAF and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. The case concerns the decision declaring Senegal to have forfeited the final and recording Morocco as champion.

CAS later set October 8 for the hearing.

Two versions of the same history

This is why the case is about more than discipline. Few football disputes reach a point where the winning team on the pitch, the team listed as champion by the governing body and the nation physically associated with the celebration are no longer the same.

For Senegalese supporters at home and throughout the diaspora, the trophy remains tied to the players who completed the match and won it. For Morocco, the official claim rests on the argument that competition rules must carry consequences when a team leaves the field, even temporarily.

CAS will not be judging which fan base celebrated more sincerely. It will examine whether CAF’s decision was valid under the applicable regulations and whether the remedy—turning the completed match into a forfeiture—should stand.

What begins on September 24

While lawyers prepare for Lausanne, players are returning to the pitch.

CAF has divided 48 nations into 12 groups of four. The opening two matchdays run from September 24 through October 6. The campaign resumes in November, with the final two rounds scheduled for March 2027.

In the nine groups without a co-host, the first- and second-placed teams qualify. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are automatically qualified but are still participating in Groups D, H and L. In each of those groups, only the highest-finishing team apart from the host advances.

Senegal and Morocco begin from opposite positions

Morocco enters the new campaign with momentum beyond the disputed title. The Atlas Lions were Africa’s best-performing side at the 2026 World Cup, reaching the quarter-finals. Their qualifying opener against Gabon in Rabat gives them home support and a chance to shift attention back to football.

Senegal begins under new coach Patrick Vieira after a disappointing World Cup. Several established figures are absent from his first squad, including Sadio Mané. The nominal home fixture against Mozambique has been switched because Dakar is preparing to host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, so Senegal will open in Maputo.

That relocation is separate from CAF’s stadium sanctions. Reuters reports that 12 other countries, including Lesotho, are being required to play designated home matches at neutral venues because they do not have stadiums approved for international competition.

The stadium problem beneath the tournament

The neutral-venue figure is a reminder that AFCON qualification is not only a test of players and coaches. It is also an audit of national sporting infrastructure.

When a country loses home advantage, supporters lose access, federations take on additional travel and venue costs, and players compete without the familiarity that a true home fixture provides. Smaller football nations are often affected most severely because those added expenses consume money that could have supported youth development, domestic leagues or coaching.

CAF’s standards exist for legitimate reasons: player safety, spectator safety, pitch quality, lighting, media operations and match security. The deeper question is why the same stadium crisis returns across multiple qualifying cycles.

African football cannot build a reliable continental calendar if a significant group of national teams must repeatedly borrow another country’s ground. Enforcement needs to be matched by long-term investment, transparent inspection schedules and realistic renovation plans.

A tournament moving forward with unfinished business

The 2027 finals will be historically significant. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will stage the first three-country AFCON and bring the competition back to East Africa for the first time in more than five decades.

That future deserves attention. So does the unresolved past.

The Senegal–Morocco case will shape how African football understands the authority of match officials, the consequences of team protests and the power of governing bodies to change a completed result. Whatever CAS decides, the ruling will become a reference point far beyond these two countries.

Timeline: one trophy, two campaigns

The Afridiaspo takeaway

Africa’s national teams cannot wait for the legal process before beginning the next competition. Fixtures must be played, squads renewed and qualification earned.

But moving forward should not mean pretending the previous chapter is settled.

The October 8 hearing matters because a continental title is part of the historical record. It shapes careers, national memory and the credibility of the institution awarding it. Senegal and Morocco deserve a clear, reasoned conclusion. African supporters deserve to know that the rules applied after the final are as defensible as the rules enforced during it.

Until then, AFCON has entered a rare moment: the road to the next crown is open, but the last crown still has two claimants.

Sources

• CAF: AFCON 2027 Matchdays 1 and 2 fixtures and qualification format
• Reuters: Qualifiers begin with the previous champion unresolved
• Court of Arbitration for Sport: Registration of Senegal’s appeal
• Reuters: CAS hearing scheduled for October 8
• Reuters: CAF Appeal Board transfers the title to Morocco

AFCON 2027 Starts With the Last Champion Still in Dispute