By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, ABUJA BUREAU
But for the chaos that characterized the final match between the host Morocco and eventual winner Senegal, the 35th African Cup of Nations (AFCON) would have been described as the best organised tournament by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in history.
With no fewer than 121 goals scored in the month-long biggest national football competition in the continent, AFCON 2025 became the highest goal scoring edition.
It also recorded the highest attendance of the tournament with the final match between Morocco and Senegal recording an attendance of 66,526 spectators at the venue, Stade Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.
Indeed, Morocco as a host once again underlined its growing status as Africa’s premier host of major football tournaments by introducing a landmark innovation for the recently concluded AFCON, bringing the competition closer than ever to World Cup standards.
For the first time in the 68-year history of the AFCON, all participating teams had their own base in exclusive training camps in Morocco throughout the tournament. Morocco raised the bar with FIFA World Cup–style Base Camps for each participating team.
Before AFCON 2025 started in Morocco, each of the 24 qualified nations operated from a dedicated base camp from start to finish, a concept long associated with FIFA World Cup organisation.
According to the AFCON 2025 Ultimate Guide, every team enjoyed a fully integrated base camp made up of a five-star hotel and a modern training centre reserved exclusively for its use.
All the teams enjoyed such base camps designated across the Kingdom Morocco, marking an unprecedented structural leap for African football’s flagship competition.
“This arrangement ensures that each national team stays in its own exclusive base camp throughout the tournament,” the guide states, highlighting Morocco’s meticulous attention to detail and commitment to excellence”, said the organisers of the competition.
For example, the Nigeria Super Eagles were based at Sahrai Hotel in Fez, a city noted as Morocco’s historic cultural capital while their Group C opponents like Tunisia was based in the capital city, Rabat, with The View Hotel serving as its official team residence.
No doubt, the introduction of base camps provided teams optimal preparation conditions, enhanced sporting fairness, and significantly improved logistical efficiency.
From a performance standpoint, the innovation expectedly had a direct impact on the teams. With access to high-quality training facilities and stable accommodation throughout the competition, teams focused on recovery, tactical preparation, team bonding, and mental well-being.
It is true that a long-standing challenge at previous AFCON editions clearly limited fatigue and improved quality of matches.
Logistically, the base camp system allowed for smoother coordination with local authorities, better security planning, and more efficient management of team movements.
Apart from the comfortable team camps or hotels, transportation was seamless, no issues with security while the designated stadiums in Morocco were world-class just as the play turfs were in perfect playing conditions despite the constant rain falls in Morocco throughout the tournament.
In fact, there were no dull moments as AFCON 2025 left no room for the lukewarm. From the opening kick-off to the final of the tournament was a succession of intense moments, fully committed duels, and figures that tell the story of an African football game in full assertion.
All the teams put up a strong showing as there were no upsets in Morocco with the heavyweights Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Egypt reaching the last four stage of the tournament while Algeria, Mali, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast made it to the quarter-finals stage.
Also, countries like Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Sudan, Mozambique, and South Africa reached the Round of 16 stage of the tournament.
Specifically, crowned African champions Senegal imposed their authority from the group stage just as Morocco solid and consistent finalists, confirmed their competitive maturity, while Nigeria, finishing third, left their mark on the AFCON with their attacking power and statistical dominance.
In fact, Nigeria finished as the highest goal scoring side with 14 goals amongst many other notable facts, including playing the best brand of football in Morocco and reading the AFCON last four back to back.
It was a dense, demanding AFCON edition, whose numbers outline the strengths and deep trends of a continental football scene moving forward without compromise.
Indeed, from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, AFCON 2025 represents a major turning point in the organisation of the tournament.
CAF Individual Awards drew no controversies deserved players won on the night with Player of the Tournament award going to Sadio Mané (Senegal); Top Scorer: Brahim Díaz (Morocco) – 5 goals; Best Goalkeeper: Yassine Bounou (Morocco) – 5 clean sheets; Best Playmaker: Ademola Lookman (Nigeria) – 4 assists and Fair Play Award: Morocco
However, after the long list of all the good things that happened in the AFCON 2025 tournament, the controversies that occurred during the January 18, 2026 AFCON finals between Morocco and Senegal have portrayed African football in a very serious bad light.
In fact, what would have been an epic match based on the current standing of Morocco and Senegal in the FIFA World Rankings and also as Africa’s No.1 and No.2 ranked teams later turned an ugly scenes on the day with the Senegalese players and officials walking off the pitch and headed to the dressing room following the award of a penalty kick to Morocco.
CAF appointed centre referee, Jean-Jacques Ndala from Democratic Republic of Congo, who also officiated the opening match between Morocco and Comoros was incharge of proceedings alongside other experienced officiating team of assistant referee 1: Guylain Bongele Ngila (DR Congo); assistant referee 2: Gradel Mwanya Mbilizi (DR Congo); assistant referee 3: Styven Moutsassi Moyo (Republic of Congo) and Fourth Official: Abongile Tom (South Africa).
He was aided by Video Assistant Referee (VAR) team of VAR: Pierre Ghislain Atcho (Gabon); Assistant VAR 1: Leticia Viana (Eswatini); Assistant VAR 2: Stephane Eleazar Yiembé (Congo), and
Referee Assessor: René Daniel Louzaya (Republic of Congo).
Despite the match being handled by the “best whistle men and women” in CAF, the encounter ended in controversy as the Senegalese vehemently disputed the penalty kick awarded to Morocco even when the VAR clearly showed the incident where a Senegalese player Malick Diouf shoved down Morocco’s Brahim Díaz in the box.
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The penalty kick prompted Terenga Lions of Senegal coach Pape Thiaw, who was already unhappy with a disallowed goal for his side, to send his players to the dressing room.
It took Senegalese talismanic striker Sadio Mane after consultations on the pitch side to race to the dressing room to fetch his teammates and officials to come back to the field of play after spending more than 20 minutes out.
By the time they allowed the penalty kick to be taken, Díaz saw his Panenka attempt saved by Edouard Mendy to send the final to extra time. Then Pape Gueye struck the winner for Senegal after a beautiful exchange of passes with teammates, including Mané.
Morocco could not recover from the shock after conceding in the extra time, and the rest is history.
Although Senegal won, it was a bad way to end a well-organised AFCON 2025 tournament, which had for one month produced scintillating football matches comparable to some of the FIFA World Cup games as most of the foreign-based players, especially those playing in AFCON for the first time did not complain about the accommodation, feeding, transportation, training and playing pitches as often witnessed in the past editions apart from Ivory Coast before Morocco.
Now, the African football ruling body CAF has to take a hard but necessary decision to punish everyone or anyone who is found guilty of dragging our beautiful football in the mud. The rule books have enough sanctions to be handed to those who erred.
Let CAF hammer fall and let the guilty face the music.
I rest my case.
